KU presents career achievement award to retired English professor


Mon, 09/10/2012

author

Kristi Henderson

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LAWRENCE – The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Kansas awarded the 2012 Career Achievement Teaching Award to a professor of the Department of English. The award honors a retired professor with a distinguished career as an outstanding instructor.

David Bergeron received the $1,000 award for his career as an engaging and exciting professor specializing in Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama. The student accounts and department endorsement for Bergeron particularly influenced the committee's decision.

Students described Bergeron as an intense teacher who cared deeply about his research and his students. Students consistently deemed him a "hard grader," yet said they learned immensely in his classes, instilled with fervor for the material. Bergeron emphasized critical analysis of literary works and impeccable attention to detail in writing, which students said greatly enhanced their writing skills. He constantly worked to engage students in his courses, often through innovative and unique assignments and activities.

Bergeron mentored many of his students, encouraging them in their strengths and helping them improve on their weaknesses. His students said they grew as scholars from their academic experience with Bergeron. Students frequently cited his investment in their learning as an impetus for their investment in his courses.

Bergeron began his extensive career at KU in the 1970s. During that time he became an internationally recognized scholar of Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama through his research, writing and teaching. He has authored eight books and more than 90 articles in scholarly journals and collections. Bergeron received numerous teaching awards, including the Teaching Excellence Award from the Center for Teaching Excellence in 2002 and a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2007. His teaching spanned all levels of English courses, from freshman to graduate seminars. He retired from KU in 2010.

Bergeron will be formally recognized during a reception for new faculty in the College at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Kansas Union. The reception is open to all faculty and staff in the College. Contact Jessica Beeson, eliasb@ku.edu, for more information.

The College enrolls about two-thirds of KU students and encompasses more than 55 departments, programs, centers, the School of Public Affairs and Administration and the School of the Arts. Nearly half of the students at KU earn their bachelor's degrees from the College. Courses in the College cover hundreds of subjects including history, literature, chemistry, biology, art history, mathematics, anthropology, psychology, foreign language and political science.


Mon, 09/10/2012

author

Kristi Henderson

Media Contacts

Kristi Henderson

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

785-864-3663