Nominated by students and alums who describe his classroom as a “town meeting” where the moderator respects all viewpoints, faculty member William Corlett has received the College’s Ruth M. and Robert H. Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“Teaching is about community building,” says Corlett, professor of political science. “And community building teaches students and professors the importance of possessing a generous spirit.”

Corlett joined the Bates faculty in 1981 and was promoted to full professor in 1995. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

Corlett’s Bates courses address the history of political thought and contemporary theory and activism, while his writing and research reflect a commitment to social justice and economic democracy. He has published Community Without Unity: A Politics of Derridian Extravagance (Duke University Press, 1989, 1993) and Class Action: Reading Labor, Theory, and Value (Cornell University Press, 1998), and his current scholarship focuses on building inclusive communities by confronting the problem of poverty.

Teaching politically charged material, Corlett earned kudos from nominators for his fairness. “Every class with Corlett felt like a town meeting,” said one. “It was total involvement of every student in a very open conversation.”

In his one-on-one work with students, Corlett won special praise for guiding seniors through the rigors of the Bates thesis experience. “I was an adviser-less soul my senior year,” recalls Mark Annotto, a 2001 graduate who is now a senior analyst with MTV Networks in New York City. “Bill Corlett took me under his wing and turned out to be a most supportive, understanding and motivational adviser. He was with me every step of the way, regardless of the fact that my thesis statement went against every political and social belief he had. He pushed me to explore my beliefs and convictions in a way I had never even conceived.”

Corlett says the Kroepsch award embodies the generous spirit he tries to instill in his students. “It’s hard for privileged people — like college professors! — to receive gifts,” he says. “We are happier doing things for others. So I am just now becoming comfortable with the idea that my students are passing a gift back to me.”

The late Robert H. Kroepsch ’33, LL.D ’71, established in 1985 the Ruth M. and Robert H. Kroepsch Endowed Fund for an award to a member of the faculty, “in recognition of outstanding performance as a teacher during the previous 12-month period.” The honor, which carries a $5,000 award, recognizes a faculty member’s ability to stimulate student interest in the subject, foster desire for further learning, help students understand subject matter in a broad context, and encourage a high level of student performance, among other criteria.

The Kroepsch Award honors outstanding performance as a teacher. Each year, faculty members may be nominated from one of the College’s divisions: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and interdisciplinary programs. This year’s competition was in the humanities.

The students who nominated Guzman praised her enthusiasm and creativity as a teacher, her vast interdisciplinary knowledge of literature and her ability to encourage intellectual growth in every student. Nominations cited her rigor and high expectations, her commitment to academic honesty and her passion for knowledge. Her devotion to her students, wrote one of them, reflects the “privilege of learning itself.”

In nominating Taylor, students celebrated her dedication, her exceptional teaching, her love of English and American literature, her respect for students as independent thinkers and her commitment to infusing academic work with social justice in thought and action. She was singled out as an exemplary thesis advisor, deeply devoted to the thesis as a learning process. Students reported that under Taylor’s guidance they discovered new ways of reading fiction and understanding their connections to the world.

The Kroepsch Award is made through a process in which students, alumni and faculty may nominate faculty members whose teaching they deem exceptional. The nominations are reviewed by a committee including the last several Kroepsch Award winners.

“The Kroepsch Award is one of the most important honors we can bestow upon a faculty member,” said Dean of the Faculty Jill N. Reich, “because at Bates our highest priority is to create an environment that fosters excellence in learning. The opportunity to work with exceptional students attracts outstanding professors to Bates.”

The Kroepsch Award is funded by an endowment established by the late Robert H. Kroepsch, a member of the Bates class of 1933.