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Awards

Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award

The Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award is presented annually by The University of Texas System to a member of the UT Dallas faculty. Several members of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology have received this award over the years:

Victor Worsfold1989
Dennis Kratz1992
Theresa Towner2002
Robert Nelsen2005
John Pomara2007

UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award

UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award medallion

The Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award was renamed the UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2008. Offered annually in recognition of faculty members at The University of Texas System’s eight academic and five health institutions who have demonstrated extraordinary classroom performance and innovation in undergraduate instruction, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards are the Board of Regents’ highest honor. Given the depth and breadth of talent across the UT System, the awards program is likewise one of the nation’s most competitive.

Faculty members undergo a series of rigorous evaluations by students, peer faculty and external reviewers. The review panels consider a range of activities and criteria in their evaluations of a candidate’s teaching performance, including classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.

Established by the Board of Regents in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards complement a wide range of Systemwide efforts that underscore the Board of Regents’ commitment to ensuring the UT System is a place of intellectual exploration and discovery, educational excellence and unparalleled opportunity.

Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology recipients:

Theresa Towner2010
Jessica Murphy2013
Monica Rankin2015
Sabrina Starnaman2017
Peter Jay Ingrao2018

President’s Teaching Excellence Award

President’s Teaching Excellence Award medallion

Created in 2007, the President’s Teaching Excellence Award is presented during the annual Honors Convocation in May to one tenured professor, one non-tenured faculty member and one teaching assistant who showcase the central role teaching and mentoring play in the mission of the University. The award committee receives hundreds of nominations every year and considers a broad spectrum of eligible candidates throughout the University. Several members of the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology have received this award:

Sabrina StarnamanPresident’s Teaching Excellence Award in Undergraduate Instruction (non-tenure-track)2017
Sharron ConradPresident’s Teaching Excellence Award for Teaching Assistants2017
Pamela GossinPresident’s Teaching Excellence Award in Undergraduate Instruction (tenure-track)2020
Karen BaynhamPresident’s Teaching Excellence Award in Online/Blended Instruction2020
Carie KingPresident’s Teaching Excellence Award in Online/Blended Instruction2022
Christine VerasPresident’s Teaching Excellence Award in Undergraduate Instruction (tenure-track)2024

Victor Worsfold Awards

The Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology annually recognizes excellence in teaching by a member of the faculty and a Graduate Teaching Assistant with the Victor Worsfold Outstanding Teaching Award. Victor Worsfold, one of the founding members of our faculty in 1975, served with distinction as professor and administrator until his retirement in 2001. Among his many qualities was an extraordinary gift for teaching: In 1989 he received the Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award (at that time the highest honor for teaching from The University of Texas System). His service to the university took many forms in addition to his role as a charismatic professor of Philosophy. He even served for many years as university orator at commencement ceremonies, his Scottish lilt lending a touch of cosmopolitan class to the proceedings. He served as Associate Dean of the School during its formative years. For many years, continuing after his retirement, he was a mentor to the McDermott Scholars, perhaps best known for imparting his love of opera. A singer himself. Victor — along with then Deans Gavin Hambly (A&H) and Stan Rupert (NS&M) and others — created the Messiah Sing, now the Holiday Sing, the oldest tradition at UT Dallas that celebrated its 40th anniversary in December 2016. Victor was a philosopher in the Greek understanding of the word: someone who lived according to the precepts of a thoughtful and deeply humanistic ethical philosophy. Victor died in 2013.

Victor Worsfold Outstanding Teaching Award

Edrie Sobstyl 1998-99
Monica Saba  1999-00
Adrienne McLean 2000-01
Robert Nelsen2001-02
Dianne Goode2002-03
Patricia Michaelson2002-03
Gavin R.G. Hambly 2003-04
Pamela Gossin2004-05
R. David Edmunds2005-06
R. David Edmunds2006-07
Monica Rankin 2007-08
Kathy Lingo2008-09
Tom Riccio 2009-10
Daniel Wickberg2010-11
Todd Fechter2011-12
Eric Farrar2012-13
Michele Hanlon2013-14
Sabrina Starnaman2014-15
Zafar Anjum2015-16
Shilyh Warren, Kenneth Brewer2016-17
Kimberly Hill, Peter Jay Ingrao2017-18
Chris Ryan2018-19
Shilyh Warren2019-20
Anne Gray Fischer2020-21
Adrienne McLean2021-22
Kristin Nickie Riley, Michael Wilson2022-23

Teaching Assistant of the Year Award

Jean Perry, Beth Berrett2004
Michelle Swindell2005
Pia Jakobssen2006
Rashmi Ramachandran2007
Anthony Chaney, Lourdes Molina2008
Megan Malone2009
Rebecca Sader2010
Lilian Barger2011
Latoya Watkins2012
Sara Keeth2013
Tracey Berry2014
Toni Loftin2015
Kevin Wells2016
Alisa Bovda2017
Sarah Hashmi2018
Clara Marsela Lopez2019
Amanda Field2020
Brecken Hunter Wellborn2021
Shivika Mathur2022
Mazyar Mahan2023

Jo Ellen Roach Staff of Year Award

Jo Ellen Roach served as the chief financial officer and “office manager” of the School of Arts and Humanities from 1985-2001. During that time she was an exemplary financial officer — and much more. She was also responsible for establishing the environment of competence, collegiality and gracious public service that remains the norm in our School. The staff that she nurtured included Peggy Eckelkamp, administrative assistant to the dean for many years, and Sherry Clarkson, the beloved “mother hen” to our graduate students. Jo Ellen was a deep reservoir of wisdom and an exemplar of steadfast dedication to the highest standards of personal and professional action.

Sherry Clarkson2010
Michelle Long2011
Lisa Lyles2012
Carlos Palomino, Michelle Lemon2013
Pia Jakobsson2014
Julia Lawshae2015
Pierrette Lacour, Megan Gray Hering2016
Beth Wilson, Chinweolu Greer 2017
Dena L. Davis, Alice Monique Presti2018
Taylor Guest 2019
Sydney Taylor, Carlos Palomino2020
Dena L. Davis2021
Molly Dickinson2022
Alex Lorrain-Hill2023

Distinguished Alumni Awards

Distinguished Alumni Award medallion
Alumni Awards Gala – March 31 2017
Gail Davitt, David Schulz2003
Enric Madriguera2004
Ann Broadaway2005
Jin-ya Huang, Mary Murphy2006
Richard Merrick2007
Lisa Yun, Alma Bennett2008
Patti Henry Pinch, Betty Wiesepape2009
Brian McCall2010
Peggy Brown, Katherine Pabst2011
Akin Babatunde, David Hanson2012
Lori Stephens2013
Willie Baronet, Gabriel Dawe, Anne Healy2014
Maryam Baig, David Lozano2015
Adrienne Rosenberg2016
Diane Walker, Dallie Clark 2017
Richard Kurjan2018
Sobia Khan, Susan Power Bratton 2019
Latoya Watkins2022
Jin-Ya Huang2023

Bass School Council Member of the Year

Jerry Comer2022
Peter Zwick, JD2023

Sherry Clarkson Prize

The Sherry Clarkson Prize is an annual prize for the best conference paper or presentation at the RAW Symposium. The prize is named in honor of Ms. Sherry Clarkson, who served for many years as the Graduate Coordinator in the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology.

Terje Saar-Hambazaza“‘You’re Scared of Me Just Because I’m Myself’: Anzia Yezierska and the Reconciling of Multiple Identities”2012
Honorable Mention: Brad Hennigan“Toward a Methodology for Writing Dynamically Immersive Branching Dialogue in Digital Games and Simulations”2012
Carroll Clayton Savant“‘Whistle While you Work’: The Construction of the Myth of Englishness through the Working Soundscapes in George Eliot’s Adam Bede2013
Renea McKenzie“Awakening Things: Clothing and Thing Theory in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening2014
Tim Gingrish“How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: Fission and Fallout in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle2015
Jennifer Kraemer“Echoes of Americana and Literary Pastiche in Patrick McHale’s Over the Garden Wall2016
Kristina KirkBlackbird Fly2017
Yejing Wu“Double Take: Truman Capote and the Tradition of the Grotesque Comic in Other Voices, Other Rooms2018
Nina Cook“Putting on Blinders: Repression and the Semantic Field of Blindness in Bleak House2019
Shivika Mathur“Practical in the Extreme:” Hyperbole and (Dis)enchantment in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”2021
Anastasiia Gushchina“Materiality of Animated Documentaries”2022