Alison Ridley, Ph.D., professor of Spanish and the Hollins University Berry Professor, has been named the 2024 Libby and Hiter Harris Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award by the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC). Professor Ridley received the prestigious award at the VFIC fall luncheon on November 7 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond.
The Harris Award brings national recognition for Ridley’s exceptional teaching and mentoring for Hollins students studying all levels of the Spanish language and courses on Hispanic cultures and literature. The Harris Awards honor VFIC faculty members, “whose professional history reflects a strong, clear and abiding commitment to excellence in classroom teaching within the undergraduate liberal arts and sciences.”
Ridley is the third Hollins professor in as many years to be honored with the Harris Award, following Morgan Wilson receiving the same award in 2023 and Mary Jane Carmichael receiving the Harris Rising Star Award in 2022.
One of two Libby and Hiter Harris Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Awards for seasoned faculty chosen from among VFIC colleges and universities, Ridley also received a $2,500 faculty professional development grant.
Laura A. McLary, Ph.D., Nora Kizer Bell Provost at Hollins, accepted the award on Ridley’s behalf. “Since arriving at Hollins in 1991, Professor Ridley has devoted her career to the growth and thriving of her students, positively impacting and shaping the lives of numerous graduates from our all-women institution,” McLary wrote in her nomination letter.
Students laud her for her infectious enthusiasm for her subject and dedication to ensuring that every student succeeds from helping them to develop confidence in their abilities to ensuring that students who cannot afford books or who have other challenges know where to find the resources they need. “Dr. Ridley is particularly gifted and skilled in her ability to reach students where they are and to understand their needs, creating for students a caring space to work through academic and personal goals and challenges,” adds McLary.
Ridley serves as advisor to Spanish majors and minors and is the faculty advisor to La Casa, one of the language living-learning community at Hollins. She is also the faculty advisor for Sigma Delta Pi, the national Hispanic honor society, the co-organizer of the annual Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month celebration, and the primary supervisor of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs).
Her talents extend beyond the Modern Languages classroom and department to her stalwart allyship and commitment to Hollins’ mission of educational access and thriving for all students. She advises first-year students and has created new courses throughout her 33-year career at Hollins. Ridley excels as a mentor to her colleagues, balancing knowledge acquisition and dispositional learning with cultural humility, adaptability, playfulness, and creativity.
A sought-after campus leader, she has helped to create numerous signature programs from the general education curriculum to the Hollins summer undergraduate research program. Ridley also worked in Hollins academic administration, but only in positions that would also allow her to continue teaching. She has at various points in her career served Hollins as interim vice president for academic programs, dean of academic services, director of general education, co-director of the FYS program, director of undergraduate research, and interim dean of students.
Ridley arrived at Hollins in 1991 after completing her Ph.D. at Michigan State University. Her research interests include the Spanish picaresque and 20th-century Spanish drama, and she has presented at national and international conferences and published articles in peer-reviewed journals. Ridley also translates for Marjorie Agosín, a Chilean American author, professor, and human-rights activist, and others. Her translations have been published by Simon and Schuster, Solis Press (in England), and Mis Raíces (in Chile).
“I am honored to be the recipient of the 2024 VFIC H. Hiter Harris Family Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Teaching students and having the opportunity to play a small part in their intellectual and personal journeys of discovery and growth has been the greatest privilege of my career,” Ridley said. “I delight in teaching them and learning from them, and I value their trust in me beyond measure. Thank you, Hollins students, for your intellectual curiosity, your resilience, and for allowing me to be a part of your stories.”
