Alexa Alice Joubin received the Trachtenberg award for research in 2022. This award recognizes outstanding research accomplishments. It was established by George Washington University President Emeritus Stephen Joel Trachtenberg in memory of his parents. It is presented annually to a faculty. The award is meant to honor faculty scholarship and demonstrate the University’s commitment to research and creative endeavors. 

    Nominators of Prof. Joubin, including scholars from around the world and the co-director of GW Humanities Center, wrote that:

Her research has a truly global impact. Having published four acclaimed monographs with leading presses including Columbia and Oxford University Press and (co)edited sixteen books, Prof. Joubin is doing groundbreaking work that speaks to our moment in history and our hope for the future.

     She has invested her knowledge in public outreach efforts, as evidenced by her TEDx talk and numerous interviews with such media outlets as CBC in Canada, BBC in the UK, The Economist, The Washington Post, and Voice of America.

     Through her work on gendered and racial otherness, she has made a palpable and positive impact on our society and academia. Her contributions to the field of global Shakespeare have helped shape the contours of this field as they exist today.

     Her academic career is a stellar example of interdisciplinary scholarship and intersectional criticism.

    Dr. Christopher Bracey, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, wrote that “we received a record number of nominations for the award this year. After careful consideration by a multidisciplinary review committee, Prof. Joubin was selected to receive this prestigious award. We are delighted to be able to bestow this honor and formally recognize her research accomplishments at the in-person ceremony.”

     Alexa Alice Joubin said the in-person celebration, the first of its kind after the global pandemic, provided an opportunity to connect with—and appreciate the work of—colleagues outside of her field. “I would never have crossed paths with an astrophysicist, for example,” she told GW Today.

     Multiple awardees said they appreciated the way the ceremony brought attention to what Joubin called “the quiet work” of scholarship, teaching and service, according to GW Today.