English professor awarded career achievement award


LAWRENCE – The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas has awarded the 2013 Career Achievement Teaching Award to a professor in the Department of English. The $1,000 award honors a retired faculty member in the College who has a distinguished career through excellence in teaching.

James Hartman received the award for outstanding teaching at all levels of English courses at KU. Hartman is a professor emeritus of the English department in the area of language and linguistics.

Anna Neill, associate professor and chair of the Department of English, nominated Hartman for the award. Neill emphasized Hartman’s positive and lasting influence on students. She cited his effectiveness in the classroom and passion for his subject, which translated into consistently remarkable, near-perfect evaluations from students.

“At every level he received stellar student evaluations and numerous testimonies about the ‘influential,’ ‘amazing’ and ‘life-changing’ impact of his courses,” Neill said in her nomination.

Hartman taught many topics from introductory courses for freshmen to specialized courses on grammar and history of the English language.

“With every semester and each new group of students, he reconfigured his approach so as to help those students understand both the lesson-to-lesson material and the larger connections that it invited them to consider,” Neill said in her nomination.

Andrew Moody, a former student of Hartman, offered his support of Hartman’s nomination, praising him as a mentor and role model academically and professionally. Moody, now an associate professor of English, said Hartman’s influence on his career lasted beyond the classroom and stays with him today.

Hartman’s mentorship benefited members of the English department as well. He guided graduate teaching assistants and assistant professors in their teaching and academic career paths, all while remaining an active scholar who published dictionaries, articles and reviews and presented at many conferences.

Hartman began teaching at KU in 1970. He has received several awards for teaching and mentorship including the Kemper Award, the Conger-Gabel Teaching Professorship and the Ed Grier Award for Integrating Scholarship into Teaching. He served as the chair of the English department from 2000 to 2003 and as director of the Writing Center from 1990 to 1998.

Hartman will be recognized by the College during the New Faculty Reception at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25 in the Malott Room at the Kansas Union. The reception is open to all faculty and staff in the College.

The Department of English is part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which encourages learning without boundaries in its more than 50 departments, programs and centers. Through innovative research and teaching, the College emphasizes interdisciplinary education, global awareness and experiential learning. The College is KU's broadest, most diverse academic unit.

Thu, 09/05/2013

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Ursula Rothrock

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Ursula Rothrock

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

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