Award recognizes faculty who rise above excellence and demonstrate clear distinction in teaching, research, writing, creative activities and service
ROLLA, Mo. – University of Missouri System Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Hank Foley today awarded one of the UM System President’s Awards to Larry Gragg, Curators’ teaching professor in the department of History and Political Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Foley — accompanied by faculty, administrators and staff — surprised Gragg with the Thomas Jefferson Award, which includes a $10,000 award funded through a grant from the Robert Earll McConnell Foundation. The award recognizes faculty who rise above excellence and demonstrate clear distinction in teaching, research, writing, creative activities and service to the University of Missouri and humankind. The award marks the second of 11 to be presented in 2014.
The President’s Awards are presented annually to faculty members across the four campuses of the University of Missouri System who have made exceptional contributions in advancing the mission of the university.
Thomas Jefferson Award
Larry D. Gragg, Ph.D.
Curators’ Teaching Professor of History
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Dr. Larry Gragg is a Curators’ teaching professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he is the chair of the department of History and Political Science. Gragg is widely recognized by faculty and students for being fiercely devoted to teaching and promoting excellence throughout all departments of the university.
Gragg’s passion for teaching is exemplified in that he has taught over ten courses on campus, meets individually with most all of his students, fosters independent research with students and consistently mentors professors in his department and others. Gragg also serves the campus by chairing committees such as the Campus Committee on Effective Teaching and the Arts and Sciences Education Task Force.
“Dr. Gragg has a genuine love of learning that marks him as an outstanding academician,” wrote a nominator and mentee of Gragg’s. “His keen interest in me as a person, advancing the status of the university, and giving back to the university community is apparent at every turn.”
Gragg’s research reflects a wide range of intellectual curiosity and has resulted in the publication of seven books and more than three dozen articles. He seeks a broad understanding of American development in his research, and has pursued topics from migration in early America and the Salem witch trials to the English colonization of Barbados and perceptions of Las Vegas in popular culture.
###
Reviewed 2014-03-20