Outstanding Faculty Award, Assistant Professor, 2020
English
Assistant professor of American studies and English Kabria Baumgartner does it all. She is the highly lauded author of “In Pursuit of Knowledge,” an exploration of educational activitism among Black women in antebellum America, which won two prestigious awards in 2020. She also is a public intellectual who is much sought after to provide not only new insights into African American history and culture, but also her expertise in translating that knowledge for non-academic audiences. On top of all that, she won a $100,000 grant from the National Parks Service to develop a public humanities project on African American life in Essex County, Massachusetts.
Professor Baumgartner’s scholarly excellence is matched by her stellar work in the classroom. Professor Baumgartner is an impressively innovative and hands-on teacher, who brings her research into lectures and lively class discussions with her students.
In all of her many endeavors, Professor Baumgartner’s extraordinary intellectual generosity and dedication to social justice come to the fore. Through the African American role models that she has recovered from the past, she not only urges us to recognize the long history of both gender and racial educational disparity, but she also inspires us to create more equitable access to education today.
I can think of no one more deserving of winning the Outstanding Assistant Professor Award for 2020 than Kabria Baumgartner.
About this Award
The ideal university faculty member is someone whose accomplishments in the areas of teaching, research, and service are prodigious and of the highest quality. He or she is an inspiring, challenging, and effective teacher, whose concern and respect for students is evident both in and out of the classroom. Such a faculty member makes important and extensive contributions to his or her chosen field, and shares those contributions with peers through publication or other appropriate means. Finally, the ideal faculty member willingly and effectively devotes time and energy in useful service to the university, the profession, and the state. The recipients of these awards are those members of the university faculty who, in recent years, have demonstrated these qualities. Each year, two Outstanding Faculty Awards will be given, one each for an assistant and an associate professor. All UNH tenure track faculty members at those ranks are eligible.
