July 13, 2015
Department of Theatre and Dance Assistant Professor Rebecca Rossen is among the eleven University of Texas at Austin faculty members honored with the 2015 Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award, the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching distinction.
The award is considered among the nation’s largest cash prizes for higher education faculty members who exhibit outstanding classroom performance and innovation in undergraduate instruction. Dr. Rossen will receive $25,000 and be recognized at the annual award ceremony on August 19, 2015.
Dr. Rossen is a dance historian, performance scholar and choreographer whose research interests include modern and postmodern dance, staging of identity in physical performance, and the relationship between research and practice. She is the author of Dancing Jewish: Jewish Identity in American Modern and Postmodern Dance (Oxford University Press, 2014), the first full-length book to analyze representations of Jewish identity in dance over the course of 75 years. She has published articles in Theatre Journal, TDR: The Drama Review, Feminist Studies, Opera Quarterly and Dance Teacher Magazine.
As a dancer, Dr. Rossen performed with numerous companies and choreographers including the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Hedwig Dances, the Cook County Theatre Department, Loop Troop, XSight! Performance Group, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Audio Gruppe (Germany), Annat Shamgar (Israel), and Baldanza (Italy). She is the recipient of choreography grants from the City of Chicago and Illinois Arts Council, an artist's residency from the Arad Arts Project in Israel, and most recently, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Grant. Prior to joining The University of Texas at Austin faculty, Dr. Rossen taught performance history and dance at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, George Mason University and the Dance Center of Columbia College.
In addition to her work at the Department of Theatre and Dance, Dr. Rossen is a faculty affiliate in the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, and the American Studies Department. She is also the director of the editorial board of the Society of Dance History Scholars.
“Rebecca Rossen has established herself internationally as a unique and exciting scholar whose work bridges dance, gender studies and performance theory. She also is a celebrated and incredibly popular classroom teacher and mentor for both undergraduate and graduate students,” shares Department of Theatre and Dance Chair Brant Pope. “Her selection as a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award winner is an acknowledgment of her excellence in every area of the academy.”
Dr. Rossen’s performance in the classroom has been previously recognized with the Department of Theatre and Dance Teaching Excellence Award and the Lucia, Jack and Melissa Gilbert Teaching Excellence Award from the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies.
Established in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who demonstrate a clear commitment to teaching and sustained ability to deliver excellence to the undergraduate learning experience. A panel of students, peer faculty members and external reviewers evaluates the award nominees’ teaching performance over three years. Faculty members are considered through a rigorous process based on a range of activities and criteria that include expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.
Past Department of Theatre and Dance recipients of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award include Andrea Beckham, Charlotte Canning, Katie Dawson, Franchelle Dorn, Lucien Douglas and Susan Mickey.