On Wednesday, April 28, Ball State’s Student Honors Council recognized Dr. Jackson Bartlett, Assistant Teaching Professor for the Honors College, with the C. Warren Vander Hill Award for Distinguished Teaching in Honors Education. Professor Bartlett teaches in the Honors Social Sciences. His courses focus on race, class, gender, and global inequalities. Dr. Bartlett says he designs his courses to help students make connections between self and society, understand the structures and systems that shape their daily lives and the world around them, and develop radical empathy as global citizens. He has served in a number of faculty development roles both at Ball State and beyond, including as the founder and chair of the Task Force on Remote Education, as a Faculty Fellow with the Skills Infusion Program, and as a faculty lead for the Learning Community on Remote Synchronous Education.
Honors College students Katy Shafter and Andrew Willett nominated Dr. Bartlett for the Vander Hill Award. Katy says that Dr. Bartlett respects all opinions in his classroom and inspires an antiracist, intellectual community. Andrew speaks of Dr. Bartlett’s ability to create an open environment for learning and expanding students’ worldview. Andrew comments that even online, Dr. Bartlett creates a vibrant classroom experience, which is the hallmark of the Honors College curriculum. Members of Student Honors Council vetted nominations through interviews and classroom visits before selecting Dr. Bartlett as the 2021 recipient.
The Vander Hill Teaching award is named for C. Warren Vander Hill, Professor Emeritus of History and Director of the Honors College from 1970 to 1985. During his tenure, Dr. Vander Hill refined the Honors College curriculum and developed the first Honors College core classes that substituted for general core curriculum classes.