Faculty receive 2024 BOG, Mentor, Friday and Sitterson awards
They were honored for overall excellence, mentorship and instruction of first-year students.
Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching
One recipient from each of the 16 constituent institutions of the UNC System receives a citation and one-time stipend of $12,500.
Florence Dore
College of Arts and Sciences’ English and comparative literature department
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
In Steven Knapp’s class on Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton at the University of California at Berkeley, he presented key debates about the work, followed by a withering critique of various positions. Graduate students were blown away by the brilliance of his mind and his skill in presenting literary material.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
For my 20th century American literature class, I created “Flannery O’Connor Jeopardy.” The categories — Animals, The Old South, Postwar Media — invited students to think quickly and carefully about difficult topics such as the role of movies in the postwar South, fate in O’Connor’s depiction of secular society and narrative form.
Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement
The winner of this award, created in 1997, receives a one-time stipend of $5,000 and a framed citation.
Lois Boynton
Hussman School of Journalism and Media
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
The teacher who guided me most was my eighth and ninth grade math teacher, Mrs. Wimpey. She noticed my difficulty was not so much with numbers but with test anxiety, and recommended coping strategies that I share with my students. Her example of teaching the whole person guides me today.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
I enjoy creating lighthearted activities for my students. My media ethics students write a haiku to sum up a class period takeaway. I also hold meme contests, letting the group select the top entry. Both help me gauge how well they understand a topic while allowing them to have fun.
William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching
The award was created by the Class of 1986 to honor the first president of the UNC System. The winner receives a stipend of $5,000 and a framed citation.
Michael Waltman
College of Arts and Sciences’ communication department
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
My father was my first and best teacher. He taught me to remain true to my beliefs when my positions were unpopular. My Ph.D. adviser, Brant Burleson, taught me similar lessons that served me well when I debated with other scholars about the meaning of theory and methodology.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
I taught a class that examines hateful forms of discourse. Students worked with a community partner to design a workshop that emphasized the importance of respect for social differences. These workshops allowed my students to translate theoretical concepts into practices opposed to hate.
J. Carlyle Sitterson Award for Teaching First-Year Students
These awards were created in 1998 by the Sitterson family to honor a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the College. Two winners receive a one-time stipend of $5,000 and a framed citation.
Bradley Hammer
College of Arts and Sciences’ English and comparative literature department
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
In college, my close friend, Socrates Fronhofer, was a pure genius, studying mathematics and physics. He taught me how to engage critically with disparate opinions and incongruous logic. I learned not only to reason like a curious and engaged academic but also the virtues of hard work, generosity and kindness.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
Post COVID, over 40 students readily agreed with my request to be peer-mentors for new students. Over the past three years, many have reported how their mentors have become their advocates and allies — fostering positive friendships, exposing them to opportunities and networks across campus and altering their trajectory at Carolina.
Michael Palm
College of Arts and Sciences’ communication department
Who is the best teacher you’ve had and why?
In my first collegiate literature class, Michael Bérubé (now at Penn State) taught me that engaging art critically is not mutually exclusive of appreciating it, and that doing both together can (and should) be politically energizing as well as personally enriching and pleasurable, even joyful.
What’s something creative you’ve done to engage your students?
In my first-year seminar about social justice, students take The Black and Carolina Blue Tour and then write reflection papers and discuss them in class. Especially for students new to campus, this history can be eye-opening and help connect their own lives and environs to national and global issues.
