Department of Sociology, Indiana University

Indiana University’s Department of Sociology is honored for its efforts to train graduate students to teach and engage them in the scholarship of teaching and learning, a truly unique accomplishment among research institutions in academia. Although this award goes to the entire department for its outstanding work in promoting the excellence of teaching, three individuals deserve special recognition: Professors Brian Powell, Bernice Pescosolido, and Kent Redding. Their combined, synergistic efforts have made the department a leader in training graduate students to teach. The department offers a certificate in college pedagogy; special emphasis on the training of international instructors; a graduate teaching fellowship; a partnership with award-winning faculty at other Indiana colleges to plan courses, workshops, and conferences. The department was selected as one of four sociology programs in the ASA’s Preparing Future Faculty project. The legacy of this department shines in its graduates, many of whom have won numerous teaching awards in various colleges where they now teach, and they have published extensively in Teaching Sociology. This department reminds us that teaching need not, indeed cannot, be separated from research and that doing both well enhances our individual scholarship and institutional commitments to training graduate students.