Sharma Earns 2021 SU Distinguished Faculty Award
SALISBURY, MD---“A knowledgeable, effective teacher and advisor”; “a prolific researcher and producer”; “a scholar with a conscience” and “having a storyteller’s innate inquisitiveness toward humanity” — this is how colleagues described this year’s Salisbury University Distinguished Faculty Award winner: Dr. Andrew Sharma of the Communication Department.
The prestigious tribute is given by faculty to faculty.
A two-time Fulbright Award winner with appointments to India and a regional Fulbright Fellowship to Sri Lanka, Sharma uses his research to serve his students in classes including Audio Production, Digital Filmmaking, Historical Documentary, Directing for the Camera and Advertising Campaigns. He also has facilitated experiential learning and study abroad opportunities for students, leading the international communications class Bollywood and Beyond in India each winter since 2010.
Sharma has earned some $300,000 in external grants for his interdisciplinary and intercultural scholarship, including a recent award from the U.S. Department of State for civic engagement documentary films in India and the U.S. Others include two Maryland Higher Education Commission Improving Teacher Quality grants to create K-12 media focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); and a Salisbury Wicomico Arts Council grant to produce the radio documentary Negro Spirituals: Conversations with the American Spiritual Ensemble.
His other documentaries and professional media productions have covered a wide variety of topics, including the Brazilian Amazon, Maryland’s lynching history, people with disabilities, connections between the humanities, and the physics of bowling. His publications have focused on topics ranging from millennial media and hashtag use, to media multiculturalism, diversity and stereotypes, appearing in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Communication, Journal of Radio and Audio Media and Journal of Visual Literacy.
Sharma also has served SU in a variety of ways, hosting international scholars from India to teach at SU, serving as a media liaison for the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts and a media steering committee member for SU’s Integrated Media Center, and chairing the Communication Department’s Tenure and Promotions Committee. He also has been lauded for his faculty mentorship.
In the community, Sharma and his students have worked to create advertising and documentary campaigns for local non-profit organizations. He also has served as a reviewer for Routledge Publishing and several international education programs, including those with the Fulbright Program. He has earned the Fulton School’s Civic Engagement and International Education awards, as well as two faculty fellowships with the International Radio and Television Society Foundation.
Celebrating its 34th year in 2019, the Distinguished Faculty Award has been bestowed upon 75 faculty. Sharma’s name will be added to an honor roll listing all recipients since the award was established.
For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website.