Winners of the 2021-22 Outstanding Teaching Awards

Outstanding Teaching Award: Tenured/Tenure-track

Laura Kuhl, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs

With this award, the college recognizes Laura Kuhl’s dedication to experiential education at the intersection of environmental policy and global politics. Laura has inspired her students in multiple modalities, from thoughtfully crafted online capstones to a pioneering pop-up course that brought students into the heart of the United Nations’ climate negotiations. The committee valued the remarkable number of students championing her constructive guidance and enriching class activities, including immersive dialogues with sustainability practitioners from Europe and Asia. Laura’s students come away from her courses prepared to act on the most urgent threats to our planet.

Outstanding Teaching Award: Full-time Non-Tenure Track

Carie Hersh, Associate Teaching Professor in Anthropology

Professor Hersh is an outstanding teacher whose unique style of inclusive, multimodal pedagogy is effective at changing how students see the world around them. She uses experiential education not only to teach students about how anthropological knowledge is constructed but also to have them actually construct that knowledge and then to share it with the general public in a way that is engaging and informative. Her pedagogical goal is one of the most important: waking students up to the social realities that so often go unnoticed, and thus equipping them with the self-awareness to live profoundly meaningful and compassionate lives. She is active in sharing her expertise, both with colleagues through workshops and mentoring circles and with the general public through her popular podcast. She is thus an educator both inside and outside of the classroom, one whose courses are transformative for students and whose public engagement contributes to making the world a more thoughtful and interesting place. 

Outstanding Teaching Award: Full-time Non-Tenure Track

Julie Garey, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science

Professor Garey is an outstanding teaching professor whose portfolio clearly shows a wide-ranging and thorough approach to student learning. Her particular focus is on helping to create engaged citizens through experiential learning and in-depth course material. The committee was impressed with the sheer breadth of her teaching, with 12 courses, an internship course, and multiple directed/independent studies, at the same time as the large numbers of students who have enrolled in her courses.  Both testify to the impact she has had in support of the teaching mission in the Department of Political Science and the College more generally. Of course, we were also impressed by her leadership of the Model UN, Model Arab League, and Model NATO. Her passion for teaching and devotion to her students is clear in the feedback she receives from them, and the thoughtfulness with which she approaches her courses.

Outstanding Teaching Award: Graduate Student 

Alanna Prince, PhD Candidate in English

Alanna Prince’s teaching portfolio demonstrates ongoing dedication to students’ intellectual, personal, and social development and a deep commitment to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The committee was especially impressed with the breadth of Alanna’s teaching, which includes Black Poetry and Popular Culture and Advanced Writing in the Technical Professions. Alanna’s commitment to her students transcends disciplines and reveals itself in her equitable assessment policies and transparent assignment design. Her students’ own words testify to Alanna’s profound impact: “…with the main theme of the poems being about black experiences, I was grateful for a chance to read poems that talked about things that directly affected me and spoke directly to the issues I have dealt with for practically all of my life.” On behalf of CSSH students and faculty, the committee recognizes Alanna’s invaluable contributions to the college community and thanks her for exceptional work as a graduate student instructor.

Outstanding Teaching Award: Part-time  

Tiana Yom, Director of the Public Evaluation Lab Program

Tiana Yom’s contributions to teaching in SPPUA have played an important role in bringing real-world policy skills into the classroom. The committee noted her problem-solving approach and incorporation of experiential learning, and commends her support and devotion to her students. Professor Yom regularly teaches the PPUA course on Techniques of Program Evaluation, and students praise the service learning dimension of her course as well as her inclusive learning approach.

Selection Committee

We would like to thank the members of the selection committee, the 2020-21 CSSH Outstanding Teaching Award Winners, for their good work: Risa Kitagawa (Department of Political Science and International Affairs), Jacob Stump (Department of Philosophy and Religion), and Max White (Department of English). Many thanks also to our anonymous donors for their generosity in funding the awards.