UT System Board of Regents Honors Eight Liberal Arts Faculty Members for Outstanding Teaching

AUSTIN, Texas — Eight faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin will receive the 2012 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching honor, which recognizes extraordinary educators from system institutions.

The University of Texas at Austin instructors, who represent a diverse set of disciplines and expertise, will be honored Wednesday, Aug. 22, and will each receive monetary awards of $25,000. The cash awards are considered among the nation's largest for rewarding higher education faculty members who exhibit outstanding classroom performance and innovation in undergraduate instruction.

The 2012 Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award recipients from the College of Liberal Arts are:

• Douglas Bruster, Mody C. Boatright Regents Professor in American and English Literature, Department of English
• Luis E. Cárcamo-Huechante, assistant professor and member of the Society for Teaching Excellence, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
• George S. Christian, adjunct professor, Department of English
• Antonella Del Fattore-Olson, distinguished senior lecturer, Department of French and Italian
• Sheldon Ekland-Olson, Rapoport Centennial Professor, Department of Sociology, and director of the School of Human Ecology, College of Natural Sciences
• James D. Garrison, distinguished teaching professor and Archibald A. Hill Regents Professor in American and English Literature, Department of English
• Beili Liu, associate professor and director of the Foundations Program, Department of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts; affiliate with the Center for Asian American Studies
• Michael B. Stoff, associate professor and distinguished teaching professor, Department of History, and director of the Plan II Honors Program

“Teaching undergraduates is at the very heart of what we do at The University of Texas at Austin, and these faculty members have shown themselves to be experts in that endeavor,” said President Bill Powers. “They inspire our students and train them to think critically about the world they will inherit. And in doing so, they have a greater positive effect on the future than any of us can calculate.”

Established in 2008, the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who demonstrate a clear commitment to teaching and sustained ability to deliver excellence to the undergraduate learning experience. There are 65 recipients of the 2012 award from across the UT System.

A panel of students, peer faculty members and external reviewers evaluates the award nominees' teaching performance over three years. Faculty members are considered through a rigorous process based on a range of activities and criteria that include expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.

The full list of the 2012 recipients of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards is available online.