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American Studies Professor Awarded For Excellence In Undergraduate Teaching

May 27, 2020 American Studies

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Students called a course taught by Perla Guerrero ‘powerful and transformative.’

By ARHU Staff 

Associate Professor of American Studies and U.S. Latina/o Studies Perla Guerrero received the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in a General Education Course, awarded annually by the Office of Undergraduate Studies. Awards are based solely on student nominations and are solicited from across campus. 

headshot of Perla Guerrero

The selection committee was most impressed by the student experience in Guerrero’s course AMST262: “Houses, Schools, and Prisons in American Life.” Student nominators called Guerrero’s teaching “powerful and transformative” and said that the course helped them “develop intellectually … [and] ignited a strong passion … to help build a more just world.” One called Guerrero a mentor figure “both inside and outside the classroom.” 

Guerrero called the teaching award “particularly meaningful” because nominations came directly from students. 

“I was moved by all of them because it means that our time in the class has stayed with them as much as it has stayed with me,” she said. “More than anything, I'm glad to know that they see me as a mentor, an advocate or as someone who cares about them as human beings as opposed to simply students who I'll teach for one or two semesters.” 

Guerrero will receive a $1,000 cash award and will be acknowledged on the website of Undergraduate Studies, in the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center’s newsletter and on their website.

Image courtesy of Guerrero.