April 30, 2014

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Illinois Wesleyan University’s Teodora (Teddy) O. Amoloza has received a distinguished service award from ASIANetwork, a consortium of liberal arts institutions, for her three-term leadership as executive director.

A professor of sociology, Amoloza received the Van J. Symons Distinguished Service Award at ASIANetwork’s recent annual meeting. The organization also named a new program the Teddy Amoloza Junior Faculty ASIANetwork Conference Award.

ASIANetwork is a consortium of more than 160 liberal arts institutions in North America whose mission is to stimulate the study of Asia and strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of a liberal arts education. Amoloza became executive director of the organization in 2005 and served three 3-year terms.

During that time ASIANetwork secured more than $5 million in grants from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Freeman Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. These grants have enabled ASIANetwork to expand its activities, provide consultation for member institutions, offer faculty development seminars and send students to Asia.

Grants have also directly benefitted many Illinois Wesleyan faculty and staff over the years, according to Thomas Lutze, professor of history. For example, faculty members in academic departments ranging from religion to environmental studies to history have taken groups of IWU students to Asia to carry out independent research.

“Teddy has been the consummate leader of the ASIANetwork consortium for the past nine years,” said Lutze, who attended the recent meeting. “The accolades bestowed on her at the recent conference demonstrate just how capable she was at building ASIANetwork as a vibrant organization to assist the teaching of Asia, particularly at liberal arts colleges and universities, which can marshal relatively scant resources in comparison with major research institutions.”

Amoloza previously served ASIANetwork as a member of the board of directors from 1996 through 1999, and as director of the Student-Faculty Fellows Program from 1998-2005. This program, the flagship of ASIANetwork, sends teams of students and faculty mentors from ASIANetwork member institutions throughout the United States to conduct research in Asia. She said she is especially proud of the organization’s Marianna McJimsey Award, created during Amoloza’s tenure, which recognizes the best undergraduate student paper in any area of Asian Studies.

She will continue serving the organization as an ex-officio board member and finance officer with responsibilities for grant management.

A member of the Illinois Wesleyan faculty since 1990, Amoloza is a native of the Philippines. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, and her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

For 10 years Amoloza directed Illinois Wesleyan’s International Studies program. She also directed two Title VI grants for International Studies from the U.S. Department of Education and one for Illinois Wesleyan’s Asian Studies program.

In 2000 Amoloza received Illinois Wesleyan’s highest teaching award, the then-named DuPont Award for Teaching Excellence.

Originally posted by Illinois Wesleyan
Contact: Kim Hill, (309) 556-3960, khill1@iwu.edu