Professor Satoko Suzuki is the 2023 Jefferson Award recipient

DeWitt Wallace Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures Satoko Suzuki is the recipient of the 2023 Thomas Jefferson Award. The award was established in 1961 by the Robert Earll McConnell Foundation to honor members of the Macalester community who exemplify the principles and ideals of the third President of the United States. Dr. Suzuki was selected by a committee of past Jefferson Award winners.

“Satoko is a tremendous campus leader,” said Dr. Tom Halverson, Dean of the Faculty and recipient of the 2020 Jefferson Award. “She has been a mentor to a generation of junior faculty and new department chairs. She is a beloved teacher and an incredibly prolific scholar with three new publications and an edited volume just in the last year.”

With high standards and leadership, Professor Suzuki built a nationally recognized department of Asian languages and cultures at Macalester. In just the second year of her tenure-track appointment, she was named chair of the department after a senior colleague departed suddenly, a position she held for 20 years. In a short time, she developed a grand vision for the department with two equal language tracks, Japanese and Chinese. The department went from offering only a Japanese minor to offering majors and minors in both Japanese and Chinese. 

“The department has completely changed. It used to be called the Japanese Language Program, and we used to teach only Japanese language courses and just a very few Japanese literature courses. And over the years we added more faculty positions and Chinese language and culture courses, and the Japanese Language Program eventually became the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures,” said Dr. Suzuki. “My department is not a tiny, fledgling program anymore, and it’s composed of my wonderful colleagues.”

After moving to Minnesota in 1986 to do graduate work in Japanese linguistics at the University of Minnesota, Professor Suzuki began teaching Japanese at Macalester even before completing her doctorate. In 2011, she was named a DeWitt Wallace Professor.

Current and former students offer high praise. In Dr. Suzuki’s classes, they say they feel challenged and respected, and note her deep knowledge of Japanese linguistics and its connections to gender; her calm, personable demeanor; and her crystal-clear communication style.

“I’ve been teaching here for a very long time, about 30 years, and at the beginning I was more about teaching from the position of authority, and to some extent I still do,” said Dr. Suzuki. “But more and more, I’m learning from students, and I try to have them feel a sense of ownership in their learning.”

Dr. Suzuki is also a prolific scholar, editing or co-editing four volumes and authoring dozens of book chapters and articles in major journals. Her current scholarship focuses on the relationship of language to identity. She chaired the inter-disciplinary Asian Studies program for 12 years and is currently the interim chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. Outside of her scholarship and administrative duties, Professor Suzuki has served on numerous search and review committees at the college, and is often called upon to serve as a reviewer of journal articles and scholars seeking tenure or promotion at other institutions. 

Previous recipients of the Jefferson Award include Professors Bill Moseley (2022), Duchess Harris (2021), Galo González (2018) and James Laine (2017), former Registrar Jayne Niemi (2019), and Laurie Hamre (2015), former Vice President of Student Affairs.  Professor Suzuki said it was humbling to be added to such an esteemed list of awardees. 

“I have feelings about Thomas Jefferson himself, and his legacy, but I also feel extremely grateful to receive this award,” she said. “There are many others who have been working really hard in many different types of roles at Macalester, not just in teaching and scholarship, but also in services, and I feel very honored to be chosen like this.”