2020 Williams Fellowship
Recognizing teachers who are innovative inside and outside of the classroom.
Since 1999, the Tom and Carol Williams Fund for Undergraduate Education has been awarding fellowships to exceptional and innovative teachers. Candidates are nominated by their colleagues, with a formal application and several letters of support. Winners get a $5,000 award and a separate $5,000 award is given to support innovative undergraduate learning experiences in the recipient’s department.
Williams Fellows embody the spirit of innovation in teaching and learning, but also represent the collaborative ideal of reaching across disciplines and departments to create change and opportunities for students.
This year, the Williams Fellowship goes to Dan Tichenor, Philip H. Knight Chair of social science and Director of the Democratic Governance Program at the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.
“I really enjoy feeding off the energy of our students. I try to convey my passion for the subjects I teach. And I really love the challenge of making the material accessible and fun and engaging to any student in the class, including the student who maybe has the least interest in it. But I also try to challenge my students and motivate them to push themselves and try to help them understand strong expectations and standards.”
Dan didn’t always know he was going to be an academic. When he began his undergraduate studies at Stern College, he thought maybe he’d become a journalist, or a lawyer, or a diplomat.
By his junior year, he was so engrossed in writing his honor’s thesis on human rights policy in South Korea, his advisors had to step in after 200 pages and make him stop.
“My faculty advisor said to me at that point, ‘You obviously love this. You’ve got to become an academic,’” Tichenor remembers. “They ended up being right.”
Fast forward and Tichenor now teaches political science at the University of Oregon and is the Philip H. Knight Chair of social science and director of the Democratic Governance Program at the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.
He also runs the Wayne Morse Scholars program, which he created in 2012. He had sensed that students were hungry for learning opportunities outside of the classroom – and not the only political science majors, but also students from across disciplines.
The program brings UO undergrads together for skill building, service learning and leadership training related to public affairs and community engagement. More than 150 undergrads have graduated from the program, across 28 different majors.
“I think it’s really provided a special community for students within a large university setting,” Tichenor said. “It naturally brings students together from all these different approaches, backgrounds, and experiences. That’s where a lot of synergy lies. We’re in constant dialogue and discussion with each other.”
When it comes to teaching, Tichenor, who teaches PS106: Power, Politics & Inequality, and PS467: American Presidency, gets his inspiration from the Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire.
“He had this principle that good teaching is a dialogue rather than a monologue. And I love that,” Tichenor said. “I like finding ways for my students to be active participants in the learning process rather than passive recipients.”
What Dan's colleagues say about him...
"Dan Tichenor transforms the lives of those around him. He sees the potential in his students and in his colleagues and then builds opportunities for them to flourish. I can say for certain that I would not be the scholar I am today were it not for Dan Tichenor — and I know for a fact that his students feel the same."
"Dan is an incredible institutional citizen with a generosity of spirit not just toward his students, but also toward faculty members like myself who are a generation behind him. Dan’s very admirable inclination to mentor others extends not just to his undergraduate and graduate students, but to his more junior colleagues, as well."
"Professor Tichenor is highly regarded as an attentive advisor and supportive mentor who has enhanced the experience of many UO undergraduates. As a respected scholar and a committed public intellectual, he skillfully weaves his own research into his pedagogy and connects classroom learning to the real-life complexities of the political world."