UMass Boston

On November 13, three faculty members were recognized for their contributions to scholarship, teaching, and service. This year marks the 15th Chancellor’s Distinguished Faculty Award Lectures, which celebrates these faculty members’ exceptional contributions to their fields and to the UMass Boston community.

At the event, attendees were treated to lectures by Professor Elora Chowdhury, Professor Juanita Urban-Rich, and Professor Zong-Guo Xia. These faculty were first honored during Commencement in May of 2025, but November’s lecture gave each recipient a chance to discuss the award, and their work, in greater depth.

UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco opened the event by introducing the honorees and praising their contributions. “Your work, your ethic of care, the effervescence that flows from your imagination and your dedication, makes us all better, as a university, as a community. And in these wicked times of terrible headwinds and undertow that threatens to drown the vessel of democracy, and the pursuit of truth and the science, your work stands as examples, as light—as beacons, we might say—for what a university is, and must be, in challenging times."

Provost Joseph Berger highlighted the awardees’ humility and how dedicated they have been to building community. 

"We are grateful that you each truly bless our community with your talents, and your work ethic and your commitments, but also your gratitude for all those who have helped you, and that you work with, and who teach and inform you,” Berger said.

Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship

Elora Chowdhury, a professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, has made impressive contributions to transnational women’s studies, South Asian studies, and critical development studies. Her body of work, which has primarily focused on exploring Bangladeshi history through a transnational feminism lens, is internationally celebrated. In her lecture, she stressed the importance of envisioning solidarity in all its forms. She told stories of her childhood in wartime Bangladesh, about how her parents, observant Muslims and nationalists, taught her that everything is political, and to be vigilant of heroic nationalist narratives.

At UMass Boston, her work has explored gendered violence in the NGO industry in Bangladesh, reframing conventional understanding of old issues, and pushing back against the normalization of global inequalities rooted in imperialism and racialized capitalism. She has also written and taught extensively about human rights in women’s cinema, and explored Muslim women, feminist solidarity, and translational politics.

“In all of these ongoing strands of my scholarship,” Chowdhury said, “I grapple with questions of transnational feminist solidarity to argue that all living beings share a profound, even sacred connection with one another, which can only be realized through deep reflection and self-conscious practice, to imagine and strive for such connection and consciousness, even as we are fractured by identity and geopolitics.”

Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service

Zong-Guo Xia, a professor at the School for the Environment, is a pioneer in the field of geographic information sciences (GIS), as well as a dedicated, data-driven leader. In addition to establishing UMass Boston’s GIS graduate program, Xia has served as the Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, during which he oversaw a steady increase in funding for graduate students. He was elected chair of the Faculty Council for two years, led the committee that started the School of Global Inclusion and Public Development (SGISD), and enhanced the entire research infrastructure for graduate students at UMass Boston.

In his talk, Xia expressed his gratitude for his fellow faculty members, and for the colleagues and mentors who have aided and inspired him along the way. “When they are driven by the mission and the inspirational vision, there is no limit. They do everything possible to create a great university.”

Xia sees a link between UMass Boston’s origins as a school founded in a crisis—the urgent need for a new public university in the Boston area—and his own journey through overwhelming challenges. Growing up in a rural village in China’s Hunan Province, Xia is a survivor of famine, drought, the chaos of China’s Cultural Revolution, and countless other hardships. There were many points at which his journey could have ended, but through skill and determination, he eventually made it to the United States and helped shape UMass Boston as it transformed into the research university that it is today.

“Upon reflection, I have been truly one of the luckiest on Earth,” Xia said.

Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching

As an associate professor in the School for the Environment, Juanita Urban-Rich has taught everyone from K-12 students to PhD students. Her passion for the scientific world has launched the careers of many of her protégés, instilling them with the knowledge and energy they need to find success. She has mentored dozens of students in her lab, supporting them as they begin their journeys of scientific exploration.

Urban-Rich spoke about her passion for immersive learning, in which students of all ages get hands-on experience with the real world. Her students wade into mudflats to learn about ecology and take air samples from around the UMass Boston campus to track airborne microplastics. In Urban-Rich’s classes, research, teaching and community all feed into one another, leading to dynamic new curricula and students who are genuinely excited about the material.

Urban-Rich says that she believes in the power of public education, and community engagement. “Whether that public education is here at UMass or out in our community, I think we, as academics, have a responsibility to share our knowledge and to communicate. And I've found that in doing that, I've grown as a scientist, as a person, and as a teacher.”