Five Arts and Humanities faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences have received inaugural Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards.

The Ratner Awards recognize faculty for making a difference in students' educations, lives and careers. Candidates are chosen for creative teaching and exemplary records of engaging, motivating and inspiring students. Each Ratner Award includes a $10,000 cash prize plus a $10,000 teaching account to fund future projects.

Each awardee was treated with a surprise award announcement from Mark Shanda, divisional dean, arts and humanities, during the past week. The 2014 awards will be formally presented at the Arts and Humanities Faculty Recognition Reception on Oct. 28. Award winners are:

• Katherine Borland, associate professor, Department of Comparative Studies, director of the Center for Folklore Studies
• Richard Fletcher, associate professor, Department of Classics
• Susan Hadley, professor, Department of Dance
• Danielle Marx-Scouras, professor, Department of French and Italian
• Elizabeth Renker, professor, Department of English.

Cleveland’s Ronald Ratner is a member of Ohio State’s Board of Trustees, appointed by former Governor Ted Strickland. Ratner is executive vice president and director of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., and president of Forest City Residential Group. Deborah B. Ratner is the founder of ArtWorks, a Cleveland-based arts apprenticeship program and Reel Women Direct, an award for women film directors. Last fall, Ronald and Deborah generously gave $1 million to establish the Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards. In addition, Forest City Enterprises has donated space in Cleveland at Tower City for The Ohio State University Recruitment and Outreach Center, aimed at increasing the overall college-going rate for the greater Cleveland area and offering advice and counseling to students interested in attending Ohio State.

2014 Ratner Award winners:

Katherine Borland, associate professor, Department of Comparative Studies, director of the Center for Folklore Studies is a highly respected folklorist who has helped lead Ohio State’s development of innovative courses on global diversity by experimenting with video-conferencing and other technologies. She has developed and led a range of innovative study abroad programs to Nicaragua, Bolivia and Brazil. These programs combine immersion in a foreign culture with a focused service-learning project, so students have opportunities not only to study particular communities in depth, but also to work alongside them, giving back to the communities they visit. Borland receives high praise from her students and peers alike, and is especially admired for continually evolving her folklore and service-learning curricula to meet the changing needs of Ohio State students and the diverse communities they engage through her classes.

Richard Fletcher, associate professor, Department of Classics is a dynamic and imaginative teacher who enables students to see how the literature, philosophy and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome relate to their own contemporary contexts. By exploring modern receptions of antiquity, and by leading students through focused exercises in which they map their own lives and onto those of the ancient world, Fletcher actively demonstrates how the classics remain fresh and relevant. Fletcher is an innovator in developing new techniques for engaging large lecture classes and for developing pedagogical collaborations with the Wexner Center for the Arts. The result is deep, experiential learning about art, politics and the creative process, both in antiquity and in our contemporary moment. Students praise Fletcher’s infectious enthusiasm and ability to make learning an adventure.

Susan Hadley, professor, Department of Dance is an acclaimed dancer and choreographer, an inspirational teacher of dance technique and composition, and a much sought-after mentor in Ohio State’s nationally recognized undergraduate and graduate dance programs. The long list of her former students who are now positioned in professional dance companies attests to the success of her teaching and mentoring, as do the many testimonials offered by these students and by Hadley’s peers. She is especially praised for her ability and willingness to translate her own changing interests as a maturing artist into her classroom and studio, allowing students the opportunity to learn and evolve with her, and for her ability and willingness to collaborate across specialties, across disciplines, across the town-gown divide, and across cultural borders. She has for many years helped to lead the collaborative dance and music performance Drums Downtown, and works to advance enriching partnerships in Costa Rica and Brazil.

Danielle Marx-Scouras, professor, Department of French and Italian is a master teacher of francophone language, culture and postcolonial studies, and a tireless mentor of students in French. Her highly inventive courses place linguistic complexity and cultural change at their very center, preparing students to engage with the realities of a world in which languages, cultures and communities are always evolving. She combines high standards for student performance with unique opportunities for them to fully immerse themselves in the wide range of contemporary francophone cultural expression in literature, art, music, politics and media. She is particularly known for her effective use of multimedia in the classroom. As her students and peers both attest, her courses are models of interdisciplinary, experiential and engaged learning.

Elizabeth Renker, professor, Department of English is a highly regarded scholar of American literature and a legendary teacher in the Department of English. Her innovative teaching at all levels, from large undergraduate surveys to focused graduate seminars, is built around a philosophy of engaging students and working to enable them to meet rigorous standards. She is perhaps best known for engaging areas of study that the undergraduate population finds unappealing and turning these into popular courses, including courses on Moby Dick and English poetry. Renker also has developed sought-after courses on research methodologies, partnering with the university libraries to help students learn to work with original source materials with confidence and enthusiasm. Many of her students have won prizes for their work, a clear testament to Renker’s success.