Linda Adler-Kassner, affiliated faculty member at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, was one of the six UCSB professors who received the 2014-15 Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award. The UCSB Academic Senate presented the honor as part of a slate of awards for research, teaching, and mentorship on April 23.
The Distinguished Teaching Award acknowledges the efforts of faculty members who have successfully united teaching and research. Adler-Kassner is recognized for her excellence in teaching and her contributions to the teaching missions of the University. “Linda is an inspiring teacher who has an immense effect on the study body at UCSB,” wrote one of Adler-Kassner’s colleagues. “She mentors graduate students from multiple disciplines and in turn shapes the writing education of every undergraduate student in the school.”
Linda Adler-Kassner is Professor of Writing Studies and Director of the Writing Program at UCSB, where she regularly teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. Adler-Kassner began teaching at UCSB in 2009. Her research focuses broadly on definitions of literacy and their implications for teachers and students at the postsecondary level. She is author, co-author, or co-editor of eight books, including Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning (with Peggy O’Neill); The Activist WPA: Changing Stories about Writing and Writers; and Basic Writing as a Political Act: Public Conversations about Writing and Literacy (with Susanmarie Harrington), as well as many articles and book chapters on writing program administration, pedagogy, and public policy and writing instruction. Adler-Kassner is a past president of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and is currently the Assistant Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication.