2021 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence

Citation for Leisa Meyer

Professor Meyer is a highly effective teacher, often configuring her classroom in ever-new ways, sponsoring undergraduate research, and closely advising her students. She has been central to teaching the history of the modern United States, women's and gender history, and studies in sexualities. Her courses are almost all cross-listed across multiple departments and programs, as they are essential to a variety of majors and minors, and encompass a breadth and variety that speak to her imaginative approaches: History of Sexuality in the United States; the two-semester U.S. Women's History survey; Gender and Militarism; Feminist Theory; Women, Institutions, and Social Change; and Queer and Present Danger.

In her teaching she has interacted with an extraordinarily broad range of undergraduates and graduates. She reaches out to students who are venturing perhaps for the first time into areas of sexuality and LGBTQ studies, encouraging them to explore the interactions among issues of class, gender, sexuality, and race. The overwhelmingly positive responses from her students include praise for her "very caring, understanding" nature, the "fantastic" readings, her adeptness at facilitating conversation in class, the field trips often included as part of a course, and also the "delightful mixture of challenge and fun" in her courses.

It is fitting that she now be recognized with the Arts & Sciences 2021 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.