Calvin names history professor top teacher, hands out faculty awards

Calvin College professor of history James Bratt is the 21st recipient of Calvin College's Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching, the highest distinction that Calvin bestows on a faculty member. The announcement was made at the annual Faculty Awards Dinner held Thursday, February 14, 2013, at Calvin's Prince Conference Center.

See full story: http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/bratt-earns-exemplary-teaching-award

Bratt is a teacher of numerous courses on America and American religious history, the author/editor of eight books and more than 50 articles, a scholar on the life and work of Reformed thinker Abraham Kuyper, a two-time Fulbright Scholar, the recipient of numerous grants, the mentor of honors students and a fixture on college governance committees.

Bratt graduated from Calvin in 1971 with a degree in history. In 1978, he earned his Ph.D. from Yale with specialties in American intellectual and religious history and the history of immigration. That same year, he began his teaching career in the religious studies department at the University of Pittsburgh, where he stayed for nine years.

In 1987, Bratt moved on to Calvin. "I knew I didn't want to teach in a big state university for the rest of my life," he said. "And coming back to my alma mater, I really believed in the Calvin educational project."

For the past 25-plus years at Calvin, Bratt has made an impact on a lot of students and colleagues.

Elisa Leunk Malefyt '05 took four of Bratt's classes: "When I took my first class from him, I was aiming for a business communications major. By the end of the semester, I knew that history was what I was meant to study," she said. "And though I actually ended up working in business, I spend much of my free time on learning more history."

Bratt's colleagues added another layer of praise:

"To me he is one of the few people I turn to as a model Christian scholar," said history professor Kristin Du Mez. "His scholarship is extensive, insightful, and highly regarded, but he remains unfailingly humble. He leads as a servant."

"Reading him is such a delight. He has the mind of a scholar and the soul of a poet," said history professor David Diephouse.

Bratt has a long record of serving in the governance of the college: chairing the history department twice, mentoring new faculty, directing both the Developing a Christian Mind program and the Dirk and JoAnn Mellema Program in Western American Studies, co-leading the Kuiper Seminar and the Faculty Fellows program and serving on numerous committees, most recently the Reformed Identity and Mission Task Force.

Calvin's Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching includes a medallion and a significant financial stipend supported by the George B. and Margaret K. Tinholt Endowment fund. The fund was established in 1993 to honor George Tinholt, a former member of the Calvin College Board of Trustees, and his wife, Margaret.

The college also handed out a handful of specialized teaching awards, established by the Office of the Provost, to recognize the contributions that faculty make to the Calvin College learning community.

John Ubels, professor of biology, received the Student-Faculty Research Award; Cal Jen, associate professor of business, received the Advising and Mentoring Award; Pennylyn Dykstra-Pruim, associate professor of Germanic Languages, took home the From Every Nation Award for Excellence in Teaching and the nursing department was awarded the Community-Based Teaching Award.

NOTE: Hi-res photos are available upon request.

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Received on Fri Feb 15 12:35:36 2013