Two UO faculty members and four projects have been chosen to receive grants from the Tom and Carol Williams Fund for Undergraduate Education in the coming year.
Psychology professor Jeffrey Measelle and anthropology professor Frances White were named Williams Fellows for 2014-15. The four Williams Fund projects range from classes on climate change to art history.
The Williams Council, which advises the president on Williams Fund grants, announced the awards.
Measelle's research focuses on global health issues. He emphasizes immersion experiences for students, including real-life simulations of psychological effects and practical experiences at service agencies in the community.
White, who also serves as head of the anthropology department, is an internationally known scholar of social relations, gender, mating patterns and sociality among nonhuman primates. Her use of laboratory materials and exercises to supplement lectures emphasize the development of critical thinking and the creativity of explanations in science.
Williams fellows each receive an award of $5,000 to support their teaching. Their departments each receive an additional $5,000 to aid the teaching and learning experiences of undergraduate students.
The four projects receiving awards were proposed by Mark Blaine, Dan Morrison and Deborah Morrison of the School of Journalism and Communication; Daniel J. Tichenor, the Philip H. Knight Chair of Social Science; Akiko Walley of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture; and Jason Germany of the Product Design Program and Nathan Lillegard of the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship.
The project from Blaine and the Morrisons will look at climate change in Alaska. Tichenor’s proposal builds on the already-existing Wayne Morse Scholars program. Walley’s proposal will fund a 300-level class focused on Japanese prints and art history. Germany and Lillegard’s proposal will fund a course that integrates product design and entrepreneurship.
The Williams Council is a presidential advisory group that includes some of the university's top teaching faculty. The fellows program recognizes faculty who have made outstanding contributions to undergraduate learning at the UO.
The undergraduate education fund was established to provide financial support for innovative ideas that contribute to the quality of the education experience for UO undergraduate students. The fund supports projects that enhance student learning through use of innovation and creativity in coursework.
Tom and Carol Williams endowed the fund in 1995, and it has since awarded more than 75 grants to faculty in various disciplines. Both Tom and Carol Williams have served on the UO Foundation Board of Trustees.
More information about Williams grants and fellowships is available on the Williams Fund website.
―By Katherine Cook, Public Affairs Communications intern