Stokes receives Graduate Faculty Teaching Award

Stokes receives Graduate Faculty Teaching Award

C. Shannon Stokes

University Park, Pa. -- C. Shannon Stokes, professor of rural sociology and demography at Penn State University Park, has received the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award for 2006. The honor, established in 1992 by The Graduate School, is awarded to faculty members to recognize outstanding teaching performance and advising of doctoral students.

"My teaching philosophy centers around assisting students to become independent and critical scholars," Stokes said. "Although it is critically important for students to read and understand the literature, I feel it is more important for students to develop their own perspectives on the major issues and debates in the literature."

Stokes, who serves as a research associate in Penn State's Population Research Institute, has contributed to the rural sociology and demography graduate programs for more than 30 years. For more than 20 years, he has taught the department of agricultural economics and rural sociology's research methodology course, among other courses. In that span the course's reputation has grown so successfully that it has drawn students from colleges throughout the University.

Stokes has published more than 50 articles in refereed journals, an additional 30 research reports, book chapters and proceedings publications, and has co-authored and co-edited a book linking rural development and human fertility. As a mentor to both current and former students, he involves them in his research activities, co-authoring papers and articles with them.

Having earned an international reputation for his expertise in fertility and reproductive behavior, particularly in developing countries, Stokes has conducted research in nearly a dozen African and Asian nations that has led to consultation with policy makers throughout the world.