CHBS faculty members receive distinguished teaching, research awards
To kick off the 2018-2019 academic year, Jack Call, professor of Criminal Justice, and Pam Jackson, professor of Psychology, received the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award and the Distinguished Scholarship Award, respectively.
For Call, who has taught at Radford since 1985, receiving the Outstanding Teaching Award was a validation of why he came to Radford.
“Because I still primarily see Radford as a teaching institution, and I think Radford still sees itself that way, it means a lot because I came here to primarily be a teacher,” Call said. “I think what has kept me from retiring is the relationships that you develop with students.”
Call said that the relationship building takes place through the exchange of ideas in the classroom.
“You can see when a light bulb is going off in a student’s head,” he said. “You can see that look of recognition. They are making a new connection, understanding something new or understanding the significance of something in a way they hadn’t recognized before. That’s why people teach – to see those moments."
Professor of Criminal Justice Jack Call, left, and Professor of Psychology Pam Jackson, right.
“And that’s why people teach here,” Call continued.
Jackson, who has been at Radford for 27 years, said that she was “very surprised and excited to have won [the Distinguished Scholarship Award]. It felt like a really good validation of my work.”
Jackson does animal research, but also teaches research methods, statistics and upper level lab courses in CHBS.
“I teach research as well as do research,” Jackson said. “It permeates everything I do at the university. It is so rewarding when you have a student that comes into a laboratory class, didn’t like research and suddenly realizes that they do. My goal is for them to not only learn how to conduct research or how to interpret it, but that research is cool and very worthwhile. That psychologists can contribute as much through research as through service.”