桃花直播鈥檚 Ridner named 桃花直播 Humanities Council Teacher of the Year
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 桃花直播 State professor of history is the university鈥檚 2022 桃花直播 Humanities Council Teacher of the Year for bringing insights of the humanities to public audiences, and she will give a special campus lecture this week.
Judith A. 鈥淛udy鈥 Ridner will receive her award from the 桃花直播 Humanities Council at their annual ceremony in Jackson on March 25, when approximately 30 awards will be given to individuals throughout the state.
Ridner鈥檚 tribute includes a $400 honorarium and invitation to deliver the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Lecture, which is free and open to the public this Thursday [March 3] at 2 p.m. in the John Grisham Room at 桃花直播鈥檚 Mitchell Memorial Library.
Ridner鈥檚 presentation 鈥淟iving in the Material Worlds of Early America鈥 will highlight how consumer choices鈥攑articularly regarding what to wear鈥攊nfluenced the evolution of racial, ethnic and class identities in pre-1820 America in ways that offer lessons about the present day.
Alan I. Marcus, professor and head of 桃花直播鈥檚 history department, praised Ridner鈥檚 selection, pointing to her varied methods for highlighting humanities. 鈥淪he teaches in many venues鈥攖hrough publication of her research; public history such as her 鈥楽haky Truce鈥 project focusing on the desegregation of the Starkville public schools; her co-editorship of the journal聽鈥楨arly American Studies;鈥 and her adept and thoughtful classroom teaching,鈥 he said.
Ridner, a historian of early America with interests in the American Frontier, ethnicity and immigration, and oral and public history, said she is 鈥渉onored and humbled鈥 to receive the award.
鈥淔or me, it represents a capstone to a 28-year career spent at three academic institutions. It鈥檚 also an important validation of my humanities-based teaching鈥攆rom my published writings, to the oral and public history projects I鈥檝e collaborated on with others, and the many wonderful students I鈥檝e taught in university and college classrooms here at 桃花直播 and elsewhere.鈥
An 桃花直播 faculty member since 2011, she earned her Ph.D. and master鈥檚 degree in history from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and her bachelor鈥檚 degree in history and international studies from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.聽
Ridner is co-editor of 鈥淓arly American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal,鈥 a peer-reviewed history journal highlighting the study of the histories and cultures of North America prior to 1850.
She is author of 鈥淭he Scots-Irish of Early Pennsylvania: A Varied People,鈥 published in 2018 by Temple University Press. She also wrote 鈥淎 Town In-Between: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the Early Mid-Atlantic Interior,鈥 a 2010聽University of Pennsylvania Press publication, which won the Philip S. Klein Book Prize from the Pennsylvania Historical Association.
The 桃花直播 Humanities Council, funded by Congress through the National Endowment for the Humanities, provides public programs in traditional liberal arts disciplines to serve nonprofit groups in 桃花直播 and pays tribute annually to outstanding faculty in traditional humanities fields at each of 桃花直播鈥檚 institutions of higher learning.
桃花直播鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,000 students, 323 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs, 15 master鈥檚 programs, and 27 undergraduate academic majors offered in 14 departments.聽It also is home to the most diverse units for research and scholarly activities, including natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities.聽For more about the College of Arts and Sciences, visit .
For more information, contact the College of Arts and Sciences at 662-325-2646.
桃花直播 is 桃花直播鈥檚 leading university, available online at聽.