{"id":23795,"date":"2024-04-16T21:43:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T21:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=23795"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:59:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:59:43","slug":"professor-wendy-weber-receives-jack-and-marty-rossmann-excellence-in-teaching-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2024\/04\/professor-wendy-weber-receives-jack-and-marty-rossmann-excellence-in-teaching-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Wendy Weber receives Jack and Marty Rossmann Excellence in Teaching Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Wendy Weber<\/b>, <\/span>senior lecturer of Political Science and chair of Human Rights and Humanitarianism<\/span>, has been awarded the 2024 Jack and Marty Rossmann Excellence in Teaching Award that recognizes \u201ca faculty member who has been identified by colleagues and students as exemplifying the teaching goals of ÈÕº«¾«Æ·.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macalester President Suzanne Rivera announced the award and read from this citation:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Wendy Weber, we are delighted to present you with the 2024 Jack and Marty <\/span><\/i>Rossmann Excellence in Teaching Award.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a faculty member in the Political Science Department, you bring deep scholarly expertise in <\/span><\/i>contemporary global governance to your teaching. Your courses include Foundations of <\/span><\/i>International Politics, Humanitarianism in World Politics, and Introduction to International <\/span><\/i>Human Rights. You\u2019ve also shaped Macalester\u2019s curriculum through the Human Rights and <\/span><\/i>Humanitarianism concentration, which you co-founded and led for eight years. In that role, you expanded community outreach and networking efforts, developed a seminar for seniors to <\/span><\/i>synthesize their work and explore career paths, and supported internship experiences \u2014 including through the Amy Ostermeier Fund summer fellowship program.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year after year, students praise what one alum calls your \u201cunmatched ability to be both <\/span><\/i>genuinely caring and intensely rigorous.\u201d You create an inclusive, collaborative culture, often <\/span><\/i>beginning class by asking students to list questions or confusions raised by the homework. One <\/span><\/i>colleague describes your commitment to making the department a safe place for healthy debate and reflection: you encourage students to speak up in class, even \u2014 perhaps especially \u2014 if ideas are only half-baked, all in the spirit of generating a richer conversation. That approach works: you seamlessly balance \u201cunrivaled skills as a lecturer while also orchestrating brilliant discussion.\u201d You nurture scholarly curiosity, and emphasize reading texts generously and closely before turning to criticism.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also shine through your excellence in advising. As one current student writes, \u201cMy greatest resource at Macalester has been Professor Wendy Weber.\u201d You advise an incredible number of students \u2014 among the most of any faculty member \u2014 yet you remain accessible, supportive, and knowledgeable about opportunities and resources to all. You are a mentor and advocate \u2014 for students and colleagues alike. You support each step of the student journey, from designing a set of lessons focused on the first-year experience to providing thoughtful, direct guidance as an honors thesis supervisor. Colleagues notice your joy in this work: \u201cI can testify to how warmly she describes her students, most often using the word \u2018lovely,\u2019\u201d writes one professor. \u201cShe not only teaches them \u2014 she appreciates them, and makes sure they know it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your care for the Macalester community extends across disciplines and beyond department <\/span><\/i>boundaries. Among many roles, you\u2019ve represented faculty on career exploration trips, served as the baseball team\u2019s faculty liaison, and organized a food and supply drive for Afghan refugees. This year, you supported our Human Rights Organization in hosting the college\u2019s inaugural student-led human rights conference. And many community members express gratitude for your efforts and leadership in hosting three contextual talks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year, navigating each conversation with grace, nuance, and empathy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of a student responding to a course survey: \u201cWendy is the kind of professor who has the capacity to change students\u2019 lives and careers for the better. It\u2019s rare to meet a professor who so thoroughly lives up to and surpasses her reputation. Wendy is one of a kind.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Weber, it is our honor today to celebrate your dedication to your students, and the impact you\u2019ve made on the Macalester community.<\/span><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Wendy Weber, senior lecturer of Political Science and chair of Human Rights and Humanitarianism, is the recipient of the 2024 Rossmann Award.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":23797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[122,22],"class_list":["post-23795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","tag-human-rights-and-humanitarianism","tag-political-science","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29789,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23795\/revisions\/29789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}