Congratulations to Jenna Bednar for being the winner of this year’s Metrick Family Creativity and Collaboration in Curriculum Award!
The award goes to a faculty member who has developed or redeveloped an undergraduate course that promotes respectful dialogue, collaboration, and discussion of different perspectives on issues.
Professor Bednar’s ULWR class, “American State Government,” is fruitfully connected to her broader efforts to encourage respectful dialogue and viewpoint diversity on campus. Incorporating a variety of writing assignments– including an op-ed and a lengthy policy brief on a topic of their choosing– the course invites students to apply their understanding of political science concepts to public policy design.
Last year, Professor Bednar introduced a simple, yet surprisingly effective, new idea: she linked the students’ policy brief to the op-ed assignment. First, she asked students to write an op-ed from the perspective of someone opposed to the policy they were developing. Then, she required students to cite their op-eds in the policy brief they submitted at the end of the term.
By tethering the two assignments in this way, Professor Bednar encouraged students “to deeply imagine” their opponents’ views, and “to genuinely feel and understand their perspective—empathizing with their pain and considering the valid reasons behind their opposition.” As she explains: “I wanted them to embody the human behind the opposition.” Students in turn shared that this imaginative exercise softened–and sometimes even changed–their policy positions.
The UAC applauds how Prof. Bednar’s class receives students as members of a broader community, and equips them to contribute meaningfully and empathically to that community.
Past winners of the Metrick Award are: Matt McManus (2024), Justine Davis (2023), Mary Gallagher (2022), Chuck Shipan (2021), Lisa Disch (2020), and Mariah Zeisberg (2019).
