Communication Arts Professor Sara McKinnon is one of the Chancellor’s 2019 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients!
Sara McKinnon has been a professor at UW-Madison since 2010. She has taught several courses, including CA 260 – Communication & Human Behavior, CA 373 – Intercultural Communication & Rhetoric, and CA 573 – Rhetoric of Globalization & Transnationalism. Her book Gendered Asylum: Race and Violence in US Law and Politics recently won the Bonnie Ritter Book Award from the Feminist and Women’s Studies Division of the National Communication Association.
The time and care Professor McKinnon invests in the classroom extends to all the courses she teaches but is perhaps best demonstrated with CA 260, which she and her TAs recently retooled as part of the REACH (Redesigning for Active Learning in High-Enrollment Courses) Initiative. In the course, online lessons have replaced the lectures, and once a week the entire class meets to work on a case study that applies to the week’s content. There are also regular small group meetings and writing workshops with the TAs. All of these elements create a much more engaging experience for the students.
Professor McKinnon joins the growing list of Communication Arts professors to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award. Previous recipients include Professors Jonathan Gray, Kelley Conway, Steve Lucas, JJ Murphy, and Susan Zaeske.
Professor McKinnon is one of five professors honored with the award this year:
Anna Andrzejewski, professor of art historyMark Ediger, professor of chemistryPatrick Remington, professor of population health sciencesMichael Wagner, associate professor of journalism and mass communication
Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf will present the awards at a 5:00p.m. ceremony on April 10 at the Pyle Center.