Each year, the College of Arts & Sciences awards selected faculty with Outstanding Teaching Awards. The recipients of the 2014-2015 A&S Outstanding Teaching Awards are Clare Batty, Emily Beaulieu, and Jeorg Sauer.

Clare Batty joined the Department of Philosophy in 2007.  She excels in teaching courses at all levels, from the 100-level “Knowledge and Reality” to the graduate-level “Perception and the Body.”  Described by her students as “passionate,” “engaging,” “lively,” “knowledgeable,” “approachable,” “funny,” and “demanding but kind,” Dr. Batty motivates numerous students to take additional philosophy classes.  Students also find her inspiring; as her nomination letter states, “she presents to students a model of what it is to be a philosopher, of what it is to do philosophy.” A former student recounts that she “has a knack for bringing the material alive with relevant real-world examples, as well as absurd ones.”  Her gift for making philosophy relevant lets students realize that they are already philosophers and, with this confidence, to wrestle with more complex philosophical questions and arguments.

Emily Beaulieu joined the Department of Political Science in 2006.  Since then, she has an outstanding record of teaching contributions. She developed several new undergraduate courses and also the first political science teaching abroad program.  She revitalized, moreover, the existing courses that she took on.  Besides receiving outstanding teaching evaluations, she has championed the use of new technologies and active learning approaches in the classroom.  As one of her colleagues states, Professor Beaulieu “is exactly the kind of instructor that students will remember for the rest of their lives and be thankful they attended the University of Kentucky”.

Jeorg Sauer is a senior Lecturer who joined the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in 2001.  Since then, she has taught and developed an array of interactive undergraduate courses that integrate multiple media with the latest pedagogical practices.  As one of her letters states, she has demonstrated a “most creative and original mind.”   Committed to student-centered learning, she lets students take charge of their own development and works with each of them to develop learning objectives and outcomes that are personally relevant.  Sauer fosters a comfortable but challenging setting for learning the French language and about French and Francophone cultures.  Her students claim that “she is passionate about what she does and her enthusiasm for language learning is contagious.”

Nominations for the award are accepted during each Spring semester.