Jawahar, Riaz Named University Professors

Jim Jawahar, professor and chair of the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods, and Ali Riaz, professor and chair of the Department of Politics and Government, have been named University Professors at Illinois State University.  The title honors faculty members who are nationally recognized scholars and teachers.  The title of University Professor will be officially bestowed upon both at Illinois State’s Founders Day Convocation at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16.

Jawahar teaches courses in human resource management and organizational behavior. His research focuses on performance appraisal, selection, organizational justice, citizenship and counterproductive behaviors and work-family dynamics. He has published more than 45 articles in such journals as the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Labor Research, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Applied Psychology. He has presented more than 60 papers at national and international conferences, including the Academy of Management Conference and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada.

Jawahar has been recognized with the Dale Yoder and Herb Heneman Research Award (SHRM Research Award) for his research on performance appraisal. At Illinois State University, he has received the College of Business Service Award, College of Business Research Award and has been recognized twice with the Caterpillar Faculty Scholar Award.

Jawahar is the editor of Career Development International, a premier journal in the careers area of management. He previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Management and is currently on the editorial advisory boards of Group and Organization Management, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing and Journal of Managerial Psychology. He is the faculty advisor for Illinois State's Society for Human Resource Management student chapter, which has earned the Superior Merit Award each of the last eight years. In 2003, he served as the president of the Bloomington-Normal Human Resource Council and continues to serve that organization as a board member. Jawahar also serves as an executive board member of Illinois State’s Institutional Review Board.

Riaz teaches courses in comparative politics and the politics of South Asia. An internationally-recognized authority on the politics of Bangladesh, Riaz also researches and writes extensively on Islamist politics, South Asian politics, community development and the political economy of media. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters and articles in English and Bengali and is the editor of Studies on Asia, a biannual journal of Asian studies sponsored by the Midwestern Conference on South Asian Affairs.

Riaz’s English language publications include Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (2010), Religion and Politics in South Asia (2010), (Re)reading Taslima Nasrin: Contexts, Contents & Constructions (2010), Faithful Education: Madrassahs in South Asia (2008), Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh: A Complex Web (2008), Paradise Lost? State Failure in Nepal with Subho Basu (2007), Unfolding State: The Transformation of Bangladesh (2005), God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh (2004) and State, Class and Military Rule: Political Economy of Martial Law in Bangladesh (1993).

Riaz earned the College of Arts and Sciences’ first Dean's Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievement in 2004 and the Outstanding College Researcher Award in 2005. He received the Pi Sigma Alpha Excellence in Teaching Award in 2006.

Riaz has an extensive experience in journalism, having worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service during the 1990s as a producer and senior broadcast journalist. As a scholar, he is frequently interviewed by English and Bengali language print and broadcast media about political Islam and the politics of Bangladesh and other South Asian nations. He has also served as a consultant for international organizations including the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum of the Social Science Research Council, the United Nations Development Program and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The designation of University Professor enables Illinois State to honor individual faculty members or administrators who hold the rank of full professor and who have achieved national recognition for scholarly research, creative production or leadership in creative or scholarly activities. Individuals who are identified by students, colleagues or external agencies as outstanding teachers are also eligible for the title.

Up to two University Professors can be appointed each year from within the Illinois State community, with the recipients holding the title throughout their years of service at the University. Appointments to University Professor may also be made to help recruit outstanding faculty members from other colleges or universities. The title, endorsed by Illinois State’s Academic Senate, is a companion honor to the long-standing Distinguished Professor designation.