Osamah F. Khalil, associate professor of history and chair of the undergraduate program in international relations, was recently awarded the Dr. Ralph E. Montonna Endowed Professorship for the Teaching and Education of Undergraduates. He will hold the professorship for the 2021-22 academic year.

Khalil is a historian of U.S. foreign relations and the modern Middle East. He is the author of “America’s Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State” (Harvard University Press, 2016) and the editor of “United States Relations with China and Iran: Towards the Asian Century” (Bloomsbury, 2019). He has been a frequent media commentator and contributor to the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Al Akhbar and Al Jazeera. In 2018, he received the Chancellor’s Citation for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction. He received a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2011.

He is the second recipient of the annual award; Gretchen Purser, associate professor of sociology, was the inaugural recipient.

The Dr. Ralph E. Montonna Endowed Professorship for the Teaching and Education of Undergraduates was established with a gift from the honoree’s daughter, the late Mary Lou Williams ’50 B.A. (AmSt). Montonna earned a B.S. in chemistry from Syracuse University in 1916 followed by a Ph.D. from Yale University. In 1946, he was named director of research at Syracuse University. He died in 1952. Of note: His grandson is a Maxwell School alumnus: Brian T. Williams ’11 earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and history in 2011.

“Every faculty member rose to the challenge during the pandemic, giving rise to many strong nominations,” says Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke.

As a result, the Maxwell School Dean’s Office has additionally recognized two faculty members for their undergraduate teaching and mentoring. Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science and director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Political Science, received the Maxwell School Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Mentoring. Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics, was awarded the Maxwell School Dean’s Award for Innovative Teaching. The dean’s office gave these one-time awards to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of these faculty during the pandemic.

McDowell teaches courses such as International Relations and International Political Economy. His research focuses on the politics of money and finance with an emphasis on the role of the United States, the International Monetary Fund and China. He authored “Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? The United States, the International Monetary Fund and the International Lender of Last Resort” (Oxford University Press, 2017). He received a Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia in 2012.

Buzard is a Melvin A. Eggers Faculty Scholar whose research focuses on the formation and maintenance of international trade agreements as well as innovation and gender discrimination. Her courses include Microeconomic Analysis and Game Theory and Economic Strategy. Her numerous published works include “Self-enforcing Trade Agreements and Lobbying,” printed in the Journal of International Economics. She received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego, in 2012.