![image of Dr. Markwyn]()
Dr. Abigail Markwyn, associate professor of history, has been named the 2018 recipient of Carroll University’s Benjamin F. Richason, Jr. Faculty Award. This award is a memorial award established in honor of Professor Ben Richason and requires that recipients demonstrate excellence in teaching, research and educational innovation.
Since joining the Carroll faculty in 2006, Dr. Markwyn has enjoyed much success. She received an Educational Innovation Faculty Development Grant in 2011-12 and was a Milwaukee Public Museum Teaching Fellow in 2014-15. From 2008-11, she was a member of the Innovations in Teaching, Technology and Scholarship Committee, and in 2010-11 she served as co¬-chair of that committee.
Dr. Markwyn has also published two books: Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, the Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 2014, and a co-edited volume, Gendering the Fair: Histories of Women and Gender at World’s Fairs, in 2010. She has also published a number of journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews. Dr. Markwyn is currently on sabbatical, working on a new book project.
Recent educational innovations for Dr. Markwyn include the implementation of the "Reacting to the Past" curriculum at Carroll—last year she led a group of faculty in adopting this interactive pedagogy. Unlike traditional classes or seminars, “Reacting to the Past” courses embed students in roles and situations set in the past. Students take on roles that are informed by classic texts, and to be successful in the simulation they must master a range of analytic, cooperative and persuasive skills—speaking, writing, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership and teamwork—that will help them prevail in complicated situations. Dr. Markwyn’s leadership of this initiative will help students develop the high-level skills that are a hallmark of liberal education. Her students consistently praise her as a “knowledgeable,” “passionate,” and an “enthusiastic” instructor who is “always available” to meet with students and provide feedback.
This award will be presented to Dr. Markwyn at Commencement on Saturday, May 12.