Alex Orquiza, Ph.D. named top teacher at Providence College
Alex Orquiza, Ph.D. named top teacher at Providence College
By Chris Machado
R. Alexander Orquiza, Ph.D., associate professor of history, is the 2025–2026 Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award recipient. The award is presented annually to the Providence College faculty member who best exhibits excellence in teaching, passion and enthusiasm for learning, and genuine concern for students’ academic and personal growth.
Orquiza has been a member of the Department of History and Classics since 2015. He has taught a range of courses, including U.S. History and Food and Redefining the United States at Home and Abroad, and regularly teaches in the Development of Western Civilization Program. His DWC colloquia have included Oz in American Culture: A Wicked Good Colloquium (co-taught with Kelly Warmuth, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology) and Race, Gender, Class, and Mobility in 20th Century United States History (co-taught with Tuire Valkeakari, Ph.D., professor of English).
A student nominated Orquiza for the Accinno Award because of “his always engaging lectures, ability to generate great seminar discussions, and ongoing support of his students outside of the classroom.”
“He is an excellent scholar, professor, advisor, and genuine person who wants to see the success of his students in all aspects of their lives,” the student wrote. “He discusses lessons of friendship, parenthood, and growth throughout life. Every lecture, seminar, office hour, and casual run in on campus with Dr. Orquiza has bettered my day and increased my curiosity for the world around me.”
Beyond the classroom, Orquiza has sought to bring history to life through unexpected and memorable experiences, including a Pad Thai cooking demonstration and a performance of Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Major with Licia Carlson, Ph.D., professor of philosophy.
Reflecting on a 25-year-old framed photo of himself as a member of the University of California, Berkeley Marching Band, Orquiza said he is often reminded that students juggle many responsibilities that their professors may not see.
“My statement on teaching is best captured by San Francisco Giants great and future Hall of Famer Buster Posey,” Orquiza wrote. “When Posey was introduced as the Giants’ president of baseball operations in 2024, he described his approach as follows: ‘We are in the memory making business.’ I was once that student, living a full life outside the classroom — my attention to learning competing with my desire for experience. It reminds me that I need to create memories in the classroom.”
More about Orquiza
- Author of Taste of Control: Food and the Filipino Colonial Mentality under American Rule (Rutgers University Press, 2020)
- Recipient of the Gourmand World Book Award in Asian & Culinary History for Taste of Control
- Historical consultant for The History Channel’s “How Disney Built America”
- Author of “Modern Food as Colonized Food,” published in Old Is Bad, New Is American: Philippine Food Consumption and Production during American Empire in the Early 1900s (MIT Press, 2021)
- Member of the American Historical Association, American Studies Association, Association of Asian American Studies, and Asian Studies Association
- Earned a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University, a master of science degree from the University of Edinburgh, and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
The Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award was established in 2002 through a gift from John J. Accinno, CPA ’46, ’93Hon. in memory of his brother, Joseph. John Accinno was a steadfast supporter of the college who established more than a dozen scholarships and served in numerous alumni leadership roles before his death in 2012. The award program is administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Teaching Award Selection Committee.
