{"id":581317,"date":"2010-05-27T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=47391"},"modified":"2010-05-27T08:00:33","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T12:00:33","slug":"%e2%80%98remarkable-teachers%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/581317","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Remarkable teachers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historian Maya Jasanoff<\/a> and chemist Tobias Ritter<\/a> are this year\u2019s winners of the Roslyn Abramson Award, given annually to assistant or associate professors for excellence in undergraduate teaching.<\/p>\n

The award, which includes funding for summer salary or research, goes to \u201ca faculty member in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences<\/a> [FAS] in recognition of his or her excellence and sensitivity in teaching undergraduates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest teachers continue to shape their students for many years after graduation,\u201d said FAS Dean Michael D. Smith<\/a>, the John H. Finley Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences.\u00a0\u201cBy all accounts, Maya Jasanoff and Tobias Ritter are among those elite educators whose impact will be profound, if not lifelong. Their great enthusiasm for their subject matter is always tempered by keen sensitivity to their students\u2019 interests and needs. I offer my heartiest congratulations to these remarkable teachers and scholars on receiving the Abramson Award.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maya Jasanoff<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI believe in bringing out the \u2018story\u2019 within history,\u201d said Jasanoff, an associate professor of history who teaches courses on Britain and the British Empire. \u201cMy lectures tend to focus on particular individuals and episodes as a way of bringing to life otherwise abstract forces and trends.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the great pleasures of teaching British history, she said, is that no language barrier separates American students from British historical sources. Her courses draw on a rich variety of materials \u2014 fiction, paintings, archival footage, and music \u2014 to enrich students\u2019 understanding of the past, and their ability to analyze various sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that teaching and studying the past can make us more informed, responsible citizens in the present,\u201d Jasanoff said. \u201cI hope that students come away from my courses not only with a clear understanding of specific historical moments, but also with a better understanding of what we have inherited from the past \u2014 and how we may in turn be shaping legacies for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of the Harvard faculty since 2007, Jasanoff has taught \u201cBritain Since 1760: Island, Europe, Empire,\u201d a General Education course titled \u201cThe British Empire,\u201d and an undergraduate reading seminar on \u201cThe Rise of the British Empire, 1757-1857.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents continually raise challenging questions and ideas that make me think about my subject from new angles,\u201d Jasanoff said. \u201cIn fact, I am currently designing a seminar related to my next book project, \u2018The Worlds of Joseph Conrad,\u2019 partly for the selfish reason that I want to hear Harvard students\u2019 insights on the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jasanoff, who said the digital age has opened fresh possibilities in teaching history, hopes to use the Abramson Award to explore new ways of incorporating tailor-made digital materials into her teaching.<\/p>\n

Tobias Ritter<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tobias Ritter, who teaches in the notoriously challenging field of organic chemistry, admits he sets a high bar for his students.<\/p>\n

On the five-point scale students use to assess courses in the registrar\u2019s Q evaluations, \u201cmy difficulty rating has never been below 4.5,\u201d said the assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology.<\/p>\n

Ritter eases the way for his students by striving to be clear when teaching and by taking all student questions seriously. He encourages his teaching staff to work as a team to provide students with as much support as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, the students themselves need to work very hard to succeed in my classes,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cI know that I am asking a lot and that I am tough when it comes to achieving set goals for a class. But I am very explicit about it from the beginning, and I believe the students appreciate that honesty and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritter, who has taught at Harvard since 2006 and is currently preparing a new advanced class on organometallics in organic synthesis, said he is motivated by the excitement of students and their insightful questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rewarding to see that students like what I also care about deeply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ritter plans to use the money accompanying the Abramson Award to benefit the undergraduates in his research group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historian Maya Jasanoff and chemist Tobias Ritter are this year\u2019s winners of the Roslyn Abramson Award, given annually to assistant or associate professors for excellence in undergraduate teaching. The award, which includes funding for summer salary or research, goes to \u201ca faculty member in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences [FAS] in recognition of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}