University of Puget Sound's Bristow is Washington's Professor of the Year
November 15, 2007
TACOMA, Wash.(Nov. 15, 2007) - The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) announced today that University of Puget Sound History Professor Nancy K. Bristow has been selected as Washington state's Professor of the Year. Bristow is in Washington, D.C., today to receive the award.
"This honor is well deserved," said Puget Sound President Ron Thomas. "As a faculty member over 25 years at institutions like the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Trinity College, and University of Puget Sound, I have been privileged to work with outstanding colleagues, but Professor Bristow is in a class by herself."
Bristow, who teaches 20th-century American history, with an emphasis on race, gender, and social change, has been part of University of Puget Sound's faculty since 1990. Initially a student of progressivism and World War I, she continues to pursue her interest in social upheaval and cataclysms in her current research on the social and cultural history of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.
In a thick packet of nomination papers, colleagues, administrators, and students cite Bristow's dedication to students, enthusiasm for teaching and learning, skilled pedagogy, timely and thoughtful communications, and first-rate scholarship.
In support of Bristow's nomination for this prestigious teaching award, Puget Sound Academic Vice President Kristine Bartanen wrote: "This is my 30th year at University of Puget Sound and I can say with confidence that, while I have had the privilege of working with many excellent teacher-scholars, there are few who have accomplished the breadth of effectiveness or earned the depth of admiration that Nancy Bristow has won."
Former student Heather Gergen '03 praised Bristow's genuine attentiveness to her students' academic and personal needs. "She shared our challenges and reveled in our success," writes Gergen. "I was never afraid to ask questions, offer concerns or take risks. My hand was always raised in Nancy's classes because of the supportive environment she created. She valued history as much as she appreciated each student's creative approach to its study. She taught us the necessary techniques in order to study history ethically, while encouraging us to pursue our study with unlimited curiosity."
About Nancy K. Bristow
Bristow earned her bachelor's degree from Colorado College and her master's and doctorate degrees from University of California-Berkeley. She is a member of the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians, and was recently appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of American History.
A 2003-04 recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, Bristow is the author of It is an Awful Thing: A Social and Cultural History of the Influenza Epidemic in the United States; contributed a chapter for The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-New Perspectives (Routledge, 2003); and published Making Men Moral: Social Engineering During the Great War (New York University Press, 1996).
Bristow has received numerous teaching awards, including the President's Teaching Award (1999), Associated Students of University of Puget Sound Outstanding Faculty Award (2002), Student Athlete Advisory Council Award for Outstanding Support and Commitment to Women's Athletics (2003), and the Alpha Kappa Psi Teacher of the Year Award (2003).
She has served as director of University of Puget Sound's Gender Studies Program (2005-07) and director of the Women's Studies Program (1992-93, 1998-2001), and is currently a member of the African American Studies Advisory Committee (1996 to present). Off campus, she serves as a state board member for the American Civil Liberties Union, is a research committee member for the Tacoma Civil Rights Film Project, and serves as a hometown mentor for a Washington State Achievers Scholar candidate.
In writing about her approach to teaching, Bristow says, "I am deeply committed to my work as a teacher of history in a liberal arts context and have long believed in the transformative possibilities of education. For students to engage successfully with the complicated and contested issues of the American past they must become members of an intellectual community in my classroom, a community we build together. It is the courage of my students that has encouraged me to venture more boldly in my courses, as their sincere willingness to engage with their classmates and with the American past makes possible a more just and truly democratic future."
About The U.S. Professors of the Year Program
The U.S. Professors of the Year program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country-those who excel in teaching and positively influence the lives and careers of students. Sponsored by CASE and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.
The Professors of the Year are being honored today at a luncheon sponsored by TIAA-CREF at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honorary, sponsors an evening congressional reception.
All undergraduate teachers in the United States, of any academic rank at any type of undergraduate institution, are eligible for the award. Entries are judged by top U.S. educators and other active participants in education.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education launched the awards program in 1981. That same year, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching began hosting the final round of judging, and in 1982, became the primary sponsor.
Bristow is the fourth Puget Sound professor to be named Washington Professor of the Year,more than any other independent college in Washington state.Suzanne Wilson Barnett, professor emerita of history, received the award in 2002. Mott Greene, John B. Magee Professor of Science and Values, was selected in 1996. The late Robert G. Albertson, professor emeritus of religion, was the honoree in 1985. The only other Washington institution to match University of Puget Sound's number of Professor of the Year winners is University of Washington, which also has four honorees.
Editor's Note: A print-quality photo of Nancy Bristow is available on the University of Puget Sound Web site at www.ups.edu/pressphotos.xml.
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