Kenneth M. Roemer Innovative Course Design Award

Kenneth M. Roemer Innovative Course Design Award

Each year, the Society for Utopian Studies (SUS) presents the Kenneth M. Roemer Award for innovative course design in utopian studies.  We invite submissions that center on an entire course within the field of utopian studies, or on a single unit on utopia within an undergraduate or graduate course.

Kenneth M. Roemer is a former president of the Society, winner of the 2008 Lyman Tower Sargent Award for Distinguished Scholarship, and teacher in the field of utopian studies for more than four decades.

A $200 award will be presented to the winner, and he or she will be invited to submit the winning syllabus and supplementary materials for publication on the Society’s website.

To apply for this award for 2024, send an electronic copy of your application as a single Word file to the Teaching Committee no later than September 13, 2024.  We encourage past applicants to apply again.  Only submissions by current Society for Utopian Studies members will be accepted. The winner of this award must wait one year after winning to apply for this award again.

The application submission must include the following items to be considered:

1. Contact Sheet:name, email, phone number (please make sure this is on a separate digital page, since winning entries may, with your permission, be published on the Teaching Committee Website. The committee will omit your contact information upon posting.

If submitting a syllabus or proposal for an entire course on utopia or utopianism, please include the following:

1. Name of Course and Course Rationale:a 2-3 page rationale for the course (or the unit within the course), stressing its governing ideas and relationship to utopian studies. Each year, we seek new angles on utopian pedagogy; in the past general surveys of utopian literature or utopian thought have been less successful in our teaching competition. We do, however, welcome fresh approaches to utopian surveys.

2. Syllabus:a reading list, an outline of major assignments, and assignment percentages/points (3-5 pages) [NB: Please omit basic information like office hours, anti-plagiarism statements and class etiquette]
    
3. Detailed Assignment:one assignment with an explanation of the learning outcome(s), along with how it enhances learning in the course; and provide an assessment plan or rubric suited to the assignment (1-2 pages, single spaced). Attempt to describe how your assignment promotes critical thinking and discovery within the field of utopian studies?

If submitting a proposal for a single unit or segment on utopia or utopianism within an undergraduate or graduate course, please include the following:

1. Rationale for the unit/ segment on utopianism and how it fits into the course as a whole (2-3 pages)
2. Syllabus for the entire course

3. Detailed Assignment:one assignment with an explanation of the learning outcome(s), how it enhances learning in the course, and an assessment plan or rubric suited to the assignment (1-2 pages, single spaced). How does your assignment promote critical thinking and discovery within the field of utopian studies?

Please send your application and award inquiries to the Chair of the Teaching Committee, Ellen Rigsby, erigsby@stmarys-ca.edu

DEADLINE: September 13, 2024

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The Kenneth M. Roemer Innovative Course Design Award has been presented to:

2023
Kirsten Harris: Course module, “IP206 Utopia: Text, Theory, Practice”
Stephanie Marie Lopez: Course: “Reconstructing Utopia: An Introduction to Utopian Thought in Latin America”

2013
Peter Janos Galambos, “NYC: Utopia”

2012
Clint Jones, “Mythologies of the Future”

2011
Inderbir Singh Riar, “”Urbanism & Utopia: Modernity, Everyday Life, and the City of Tomorrow”

2010
Ryan Michael Kehoe, “A Soviet Space Odyssey: Speculative Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain”

Corina Kesler, “Build Your Own Utopia”