Distributed April 9, 2003
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Kristen Cole



Two Brown faculty receive Wriston Fellowships for 2003-04

Brooke Harrington, assistant professor of sociology and public policy, and David H. Laidlaw, assistant professor of computer science, recently received Wriston Fellowships, one of the highest awards the University bestows upon its teaching faculty.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brooke Harrington, assistant professor of sociology and public policy, and David H. Laidlaw, assistant professor of computer science, have been awarded Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowships for the 2003-04 academic year.

The Wriston Fellowship is one of the highest awards that Brown bestows upon its teaching faculty. Established in 1972 to encourage and reward excellence in teaching, the Wriston Fellowship is awarded annually to a junior member of the faculty to recognize significant accomplishments in teaching and to allow for scholarly research and preparation of new contributions to the undergraduate curriculum. Candidates are nominated by faculty colleagues, and their credentials are reviewed by a committee of distinguished faculty members, which makes its final recommendations to the dean of the College.

Harrington teaches courses on organizational, economic and gender sociology. She has done extensive research on the dynamics of investment clubs – voluntary organizations of 15 to 20 people who pool their money to invest in the stock market – and will use the Wriston Fellowship to complete her book on the subject. Capital and Community: Investment Clubs and Stock Market Populism, is currently under contract with Cambridge University Press. Harrington received her Ph.D. in sociology in 1999 from Harvard University.

Since coming to Brown in 1998, Laidlaw has developed a unique course that combines techniques from both art and computer graphics – a partnership between Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). The Wriston Fellowship will allow him to further advance the interdisciplinary curriculum he is pioneering between RISD and the sciences at Brown. Laidlaw received his Ph.D. in computer science in 1995 from the California Institute of Technology.

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