Religious studies professor named teacher of the year

Teacher of the year is named by the Pamplin Society of Fellows

Posted April 20, 2007

(Portland, Ore.)—Students at Lewis & Clark College have named Rob Kugler, Paul S. Wright Professor of Christian Studies, teacher of the year. The selection was announced Wednesday, April 18, during a ceremony on campus.

“Rob brings contagious passion and interest to everything he does, from his courses to his conversations with individual students,” said Becky Hayes ’07, one of the students who submitted letters nominating Kugler for the award. “He is an amazing, engaged and passionate scholar who demands excellence from his students and receives nothing less.”

Kugler joined the religious studies faculty at Lewis & Clark in 2002. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in religious studies from Lewis & Clark College, his M.Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. His areas of research include interpretive traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in Jewish and Christian literature from Greco-Roman Egypt. He is the author or co-editor of five books as well as numerous journal articles and essays for edited volumes. Kugler is a member of the American Society of Papyrologists, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament. In 1999 he was named Gonzaga University’s Scholar of the Year.

The teacher of the year is named each year by the Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society of Fellows, a group of students recognized, in part, for integrity, scholarship and leadership potential.

The other finalists were Yung-Pin Chen, assistant professor of mathematics, Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell, assistant professor of psychology, Dinah Dodds, professor of German, and Herschel Snodgrass, professor of physics.

The teacher of the year award process is student-driven. Each year, the Pamplin Society asks all Lewis & Clark students to submit nominations. A selection committee chooses several finalists and then requests additional student input. After debate and deliberation, the committee selects a winner. The first award was made during the 1993-94 academic year.

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For more information, please contact:
Deanna Oothoudt
Administrative Coordinator for Public Relations
503-768-7960
public@lclark.edu