“UC Davis teaching prize awarded to expert in Jewish cultural history - Woodland Daily Democrat” plus 1 more

UC Davis teaching prize awarded to expert in Jewish cultural history - Woodland Daily Democrat

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UC Davis historian David Biale, a leading expert on Jewish intellectual and cultural history, is the winner of the 2011 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement.

Established in 1986, the $40,000 prize is believed to be the largest of its kind in the country; it is funded through philanthropic gifts managed by the UC Davis Foundation.

On Tuesday, UCD Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi interrupted Biale's History of Modern Israel undergraduate class to announce that he had been selected as the 24th recipient of the honor.

"It is a privilege to award the 2011 UC Davis Teaching Prize to a scholar and educator of David's caliber," said Katehi. "His students describe him as engaging and inspiring, and his colleagues describe him as a brilliant scholar and source of pride for his department.

The UC Davis prize recognizes, in particular, David's ability to help his students create the intellectual tools to be successful thinkers in a global community."

Biale, the holder of the Emanuel Ringelbaum Chair in Jewish History, has been a prolific and dynamic thinker and leader since arriving on campus in 1999.

He founded the Jewish studies program and is now the chair of the history department. The author and editor of 10 books and 74 articles over his 33-year career, he is a three-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Biale

will receive the 2011 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement on Thursday, May 12, at a gala dinner in his honor at the Conference Center Ballroom.

"I am deeply grateful to the donors at the UC Davis Foundation who established this prize and to all of my students and colleagues for making this possible," said Biale. "Teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels provides its own rewards when working with young minds. I'm humbled and incredibly honored by this award."

Biale said he looks forward to using the award money to strengthen student opportunities in the history department, particularly in the areas of graduate education and the Jewish studies program.

According to Ron Mangun, dean of the Division of Social Sciences, Biale embodies the attributes of the ideal scholar-teacher envisioned by the donors who created this award. Biale has also twice won the Associated Students of UC Davis Award for Excellence in Teaching.

"Professor Biale's leadership has been pivotal in creating the highly esteemed program in Jewish studies, a favorite of students and faculty alike," Mangun wrote in a letter nominating Biale for the prize.

Jamie Forrest, a third-year student double majoring in history and political science, said that Biale teaches history as a "discipline concerned with the human experience rather than as a list of dates and events. He has allowed me to form an emotional and intellectual connection to the historical material he covers in class."

Alan Taylor, history professor and recipient of the 2002 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, described Biale as both a demanding and thought-provoking instructor.

"Even in the largest classes," Taylor said, "David invites students to explore the most profound questions about human nature and the interplay of despair and hope, of violence and peace, and of oppression and resistance. He expects much from his students, but they rise to his challenge because they recognize the great insight, care and energy that David invests in helping them."

Biale describes his teaching approach as "old-fashioned" and participatory. His love for Jewish history, traditions and culture comes from the heart, he says.

"I mostly lecture without notes," he said, "and even in large classes of more than 200 students I try to get them involved. For me, my personal experience with the subject is the greatest help."

In the past two years, Biale has taught courses on the history of the Holocaust, the memory of the Holocaust, comparative genocide, secular Jewish thinkers and the history of the end of the world.

"Students are very excited by ideas and books. In history, we take our students on time travel to faraway times and lands, and that is an exciting opportunity for young minds and their intellectual development and imaginations," he said.

Biale earned both his undergraduate and master's degrees in history at UC Berkeley, and his doctorate at UCLA.

As a young student, Biale was greatly influenced by Jewish thinkers like Baruch Spinoza, a 17th century rationalist who laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment; Gershom Scholem, the preeminent modern scholar of Jewish mysticism; and Jacob Katz; a leading historian of the Jewish people.

The most formative influence was Amos Funkenstein, a Jewish historian under whom Biale wrote his doctoral dissertation.

"He was truly a Renaissance man in terms of intellectual range," Biale said of Funkenstein. "He was probably the only genius I've ever met."

Biale, who describes himself as a secular Jew, wrote his dissertation on Scholem. He is the author of "Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought" (Princeton University Press, 2010); "Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and Christians" (University of California Press, 2008); and "Cultures of the Jews" (Schocken, 2006).

Biale was born in 1949 in Los Angeles. Even back then, he had a connection to UC Davis. His father, an immigrant from Poland who would go on to teach plant physiology at UCLA, studied at Davis in 1929. At the time, the campus was still considered an agricultural outpost of UC Berkeley.

"We used to stop at Davis on the way back from Lake Tahoe ski trips and see former students of his who were on the UC Davis faculty," said Biale.

Interestingly, he started out as a chemistry major at Berkeley. But with the social upheaval of the late 1960s and 1970s rippling across campus and beyond, Biale soon found himself drawn to wide-ranging discussions about cultural and historical issues. He changed his major, and the rest, as they say, is history.

From 1986 to 1999, Biale served as Koret Professor of Jewish History and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. During the same period, he also served as adjunct professor in Near Eastern studies and history at UC Berkeley.

Biale has lived in Israel, and his wife, Rachel, was raised on a kibbutz, a collective agrarian community in that country. The Biales have two children, Noam, 28, and Tali, 25, and live in Berkeley in a house with a backyard that includes three egg-laying chickens. Three of David's hobbies are bicycling, sourdough bread baking and piano playing.

If Biale could make a couple of wishes about the future of the world, he'd choose peace between the Israelis and Palestinian peoples and greater public support for public higher education institutions like the University of California.

"I'm a product of the UC, and grateful for and proud of it," he said. "One does not create an educated citizenry by privatizing public education. I'm willing to pay higher taxes to support public university systems."

Kevin Bacon, chairman of the UC Davis Foundation, said, "This prize, which is funded by generous donors, is emblematic of the importance of philanthropy in supporting excellent teaching and scholarship at UC Davis. The trustees are proud to recognize David Biale, who is a shining example of UC Davis' best."

Created by philanthropists, the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement is an annual award to recognize faculty excellence. The prize honors one UC Davis faculty member each year, selected for his or her outstanding achievements as a teacher of undergraduates and a scholar.

Each year, a selection committee composed of faculty, students and representatives from the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees chooses the recipient.

The prize originated in 1986 when Alan Hoefer, a UC Davis alumnus and then-trustee of the UC Davis Foundation, created an endowed fund and made the first gift for the prize. Over time, other generous donors also made philanthropic contributions to the fund, including members of the UC Davis Chancellor's Club, UC Davis Foundation Trustees and Trustees Emeriti, alumni and other friends of the university.

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Grants for arts, cultural programs announced - Star-Gazette

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The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts has announced the recipients of the 2010 Decentralization and Local Capacity Building grant programs.

The area organizations, schools and artists will receive a total of $70,104 for community and school-based based arts and cultural programs taking place in 2011.

An award ceremony has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. March 21 at the International Motor Racing Research Center, 610 S. Decatur St. in Watkins Glen.

The following grants were awarded:

Chemung County

* Jan Kather, $2,300 for Meeting in the Middle, a panel presentation and impermanent video installation of collaborating artists Michael Chang, Marty McCutcheon and Jan Kather.

* Cantata Singers, $1,250 for a collaborative concert, 3 B's Plus Barber, at the North Presbyterian Church in Elmira, and $2,500 for the 2011 Festival of Women in the Arts.

* Valley Folk Music, sponsored by Congregation Shomray Hadath, $2,348 to present Valley Folk Music Concert Series 2011 season.

* Elmira Downtown Development, $750 to support the arts-in-education component of the 2011 Elmira Street Painting Festival in downtown Elmira.

* Jewish Center and Federation of the Twin Tiers, $1,000 to present a concert of Jewish Gospel Music by Yavilah McCoy, to be held at Congregation B'Nai Israel in West Elmira in the spring of 2011.

* Roy Matthews, sponsored by Van Etten-Spencer VFW Post 8139, $650 to present the Spring Fever Bluegrass Concert.

Schuyler County

* Dutton S. Peterson Memorial Library and Watkins Glen Public Library, $750 each to present five artistic programs at each library featuring local talent.

* Episcopal Parishes of Schuyler County, $2,500 to present Schuyler County Concert Series No. 5.

* The Lake Country Players, $1,000 to present "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; $1,000 for the Junior Players (ages 4-13) to present "Metaphasia," and $1,000 for teens ages 14-20 to present "Sleepy Hollow, The Musical."

Steuben County

* Town of Canisteo on behalf of Southern Tier Bluegrass Association, $4,648 for the Top of the Hill Bluegrass Festival 2011.

* Family Service Society of Corning, $1,200 for the Community Arts Program for Children and Teens, featuring in-depth hands-on art, craft and theater classes at the Corning Youth Center.

* Hornell Area Wind Ensemble sponsored by the United Presbyterian Church of Hornell, $1,500 to present Hornell Area Wind Ensemble Concert Series, six concerts in 2011.

* Hornell Public Library, $500 to bring musicians Joe Crookston and Lisa Craig Fenwick to three libraries (Hornell, Howard and Canisteo) this summer.

* Pulteney Free Library, $1,000 for two artist workshops and a music program, featuring artists Susan Covert and Sandi Cirillo and musician Nan Hoffman.

* Savona Free Library, $1,260 for ongoing instructional art experiences for youths ages 8-13, with artist Cynthia Hill.

* Wayland Free Library, $1,500 to support four musical performances, three children's theater performances, a mask-making workshop and a digital photography workshop for children ages 10 and up.

Tioga County, N.Y.

* Newark Valley Historical Society, $1,554 to present the Depot Friday Night Series and $1,757 for the Folk Art Series at the Bement-Billings Farmstead Museum in Newark Valley.

* Busy Bird Family Bluegrass Festival, sponsored by the Newark Valley United Church of Christ, $3,006 for the annual festival.

* The Kirby Band, $1,450 for musical programs throughout the summer and fall of 2011.

* Village of Newark Valley, $1,425 to present Music in the Parks.

* Tioga County Contra Dance sponsored by Tioga County Tourism, $2,228 to present Tioga County Contra Dance 2011.

* Tioga County Tourism, $700 to support artist performances at the Lights on the River Festival, held the first Friday in December.

And awards for Artist Crossroads (Individual Artist Tier of Decentralization Funding) are:

Chemung County

* Jan Kather: $2,472 for An Intimate View.

* Annemarie Zwack, $2,472 for Mosaic Bench at Erin Park.

* Karen Kucharski, $2,472 for Susquehanna Crossroads.

Local Capacity Building (Arts Education) Grants go to:

* Cohen Middle School, $2,081 for Monks Minstrels and Music: Songs of the Cohen Knights

* Spencer-Van Etten Elementary School, $3,000 for How Does Your Garden Grow?

* Elmira Alternative School, $4,467 for The Faces of Zebratown.

* Addison Middle School, $3,510 for Conflict and Compromise in Person.

Cultural

Wednesday, March 9, 2011