Jeffrey W. McClurken ’94, UMW professor and chair of history and American studies, was one of 12 professors named among Virginia’s 2014 Outstanding Faculty.
The awards are the state’s highest honor for faculty at its public and private colleges and universities. Chosen by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and Dominion Resources, they recognize superior accomplishments in teaching, research, and public service.
“I love seeing what students can do if you push them out of their comfort zone. … I love my job.” – Jeffrey W. McClurken ’94
McClurken, a leading advocate for integrating technology into teaching, is this year’s “teaching with technology” recipient. He brings such tools as WordPress, Omeka, Facebook, Twitter, and wikis to the classroom.
Virginia recognized Jeff McClurken for teaching with technology and named him among the state’s outstanding faculty. Photo by Norm Shafer.
“I love seeing what students can do if you push them out of their comfort zone while also providing them with support and opportunities to approach, both creatively and rigorously, the study of history,” he said. “I love my job.”
The Outstanding Faculty Award winners each received an engraved trophy and a $5,000 check during a ceremony at Richmond’s Jefferson Hotel in February.
Chair of the UMW President’s Technology Advisory Council, McClurken teaches classes on U.S. history topics, American technology and culture, digital history, women’s history, and history and film. He team-teaches a class of students from 11 public liberal arts institutions who create a digital history project.
McClurken has written essays for The Chronicle of Higher Education’s ProfHacker column and the U.S. Department of Education-funded TeachingHistory.org. He has published articles related to teaching with technology in Hacking the Academy, A Different Kind of Web, Learning Through Digital Media, and the Journal of the Association for History and Computing. He regularly conducts workshops on teaching with technology for faculty at other institutions and
national and regional conferences. He sits on the review board for the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy and is the digital history reviews editor for The Journal of American History.
McClurken holds a master’s and a doctoral degree in American history from Johns Hopkins University.
SCHEV Director Peter Blake said of the outstanding educators, “The scholarship and dedication of these honorees is a testament to the strength of Virginia’s public and private two-year and four-year institutions.”