PULLMAN, Wash. – Kenneth Faunce, an instructor in the “Roots of Contemporary Issues” course in history, recently was awarded the annual Richard G. Law Excellence Award for Undergraduate Teaching at Washington State University.
The award honors Dick Law, director of the university’s general education program 1990-2009. The award recognizes “educators who inspire curiosity and understanding of an area of study and encourage development of the lifelong learning skills of integrating and synthesizing concepts to solve real problems.”
Faunce helped develop “Roots of Contemporary Issues,” the foundational course for the university common requirements (UCORE). He piloted the curriculum on the ways humans have interacted with the environment over time and space.
He also was recognized as the longest-serving member of WSU’s “First-Year Focus” living-learning community, as part of a long-standing faculty group focused on improving student critical thinking and for his role in development of the common reading program.
He advised the multidisciplinary student team that won WSU’s global case competition this spring on the topic of arbitrary detention in the U.S.; members will travel to Switzerland to present their plan to a United Nations working group.
Faunce earned his Ph.D. in history/historical archeology from the University of Idaho and has taught at WSU since 2000. His main areas of research are 19th and 20th century U.S. history with an emphasis on globalization, gender studies and race/ethnicity. He has worked for the federal government as a historian and archaeologist.