Andrew Skotnicki, Ph.D., Receives Costello Award for Excellence in Teaching
Religious studies professor has been a member of the College’s faculty since 2002.
Andrew Skotnicki, Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies, received the annual Br. Casimir Gabriel Costello, FSC, Award for Excellence in Teaching at the College’s annual Costello Lecture. Skotnicki was nominated by a group of his former students and selected for the award by his fellow faculty members in the School of Liberal Arts.
Skotnicki specializes in Christian social ethics and the sociology of religion. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Marquette University, his master’s degree from Washington Theological Union and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union.
During his time at Manhattan College, Skotnicki has taught the criminal justice ethics course Engaging, Educating, Empowering Means Change, or E3MC, where students work with inmates at Rikers Island. In describing his role in the program, Skotnicki said, “It is deeply moving to see what it means to confined men and women — who have invariably spent their lives without any visceral sense that what they think, or indeed who they are matters to anyone — come to own their own voice, feel their intellectual promise, and experience that what they think and who they are [is] a precious and necessary gift to the world.”
Supported by the generosity of Patricia and Jack Stack, the Costello Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes a faculty member in the School of Liberal Arts who exemplifies the excellence in teaching that characterizes Manhattan College and is central to its mission and the mission of the Lasallian Christian Brothers.