The Oregon State University Honors College has announced the 2022 Honors College Eminent Professors and Mentor. Robert Drummond, a senior instructor in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film, is the Margaret and Thomas Meehan Eminent Professor and Randall Milstein, a senior instructor in the College of Science and the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, is the Sandy and Elva Sanders Eminent Professor in the Honors College. The 2022 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor is Kathleen Bogart, an associate professor in the School of Psychological Science.
“The eminent professor and mentor awards recognize the amazing contributions of some of the Honors College’s most dedicated faculty partners,” says Honors College Associate Dean Susan Rodgers. “Professors Bogart, Drummond and Milstein are models for our entire community.”
Each year, two eminent professors and one eminent mentor are selected by a panel of distinguished honors faculty and mentors. These awards are supported by contributions from Joseph (Sandy) and Cheryl Sanders and the Margaret and Thomas Meehan Estate.
Robert Drummond first joined Oregon State University as a lead instructor in the School of Writing, Literature, and Film in the College of Liberal Arts in 2011, and he has led several honors colloquia courses during his time as an OSU faculty member, including Fan Mania or Maniacal Fans? The Social Impact of Obsessive Sports Fans; From Zombies to Preppers: America’s Apocalypse Addiction; and a student favorite, The Truth Is Out There: The Rise of Conspiracy Theories. He has also twice co-led an Honors College summer study abroad trip to France, where he teaches the experiential-learning course Outsiders to Insiders: Exploring Myth vs. Reality in Modern-Day France. In addition, he has served as a thesis mentor and thesis committee member for several honors students.
“I love teaching honors students because, regardless of their majors or planned careers, they are people who are hungry to expand their minds, to stretch their thinking outside their comfort zones and grapple with intellectual challenges and concepts across a range of disciplines and issues,” he says.
Over the course of two decades, Drummond has co-authored numerous short stories, co-presented at conferences around the U.S. and served on a number of committees at Oregon State University, including OSU’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. In 2022, he was nominated for the Isabelle Brock Outstanding Instructor Award for his exceptional contributions through teaching and mentoring in the College of Liberal Arts.
“It is an absolute honor to be counted among the ranks of the fantastic professors who have won this award in the past. I already get so much from teaching Honors College students, this award feels like icing on the cake,” he shares.
Randall Milstein served as an astronomer-in-residence to the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium from 2016-2022 and has been a faculty member at Oregon State University for over three decades. He started at Oregon State in 1990 as an instructor of a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses and has taught classes in astronomy, physics, botany, energy alternatives, zoology, geology and environmental science. In 2019, he received the College of Science Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his extraordinary efforts during the 2017 OSU total solar eclipse event.
Dr. Milstein’s research interests include astrogeology, impact-cratering dynamics and archaeo-astronomy, and he is a frequent outreach speaker and contributor to panel discussions, videos and podcasts for the Annares Project for Alternative Futures, an online forum “for conversations, ideas and initiatives that promote a future free of domination, exploitation, oppression, war and empire.”
He has taught in the Honors College since 2013, leading honors colloquium courses ranging from The Art of Science – The Science of Art to Crises, Catastrophes and Cataclysms in Earth History and, most recently, Comparative Planetology. He has also served as a committee member for 12 honors student theses.
“When asked about teaching in the Honors College, I always tell people I consider it to be my honor to guide and share with such inspiring, talented and motivated students. The best part of my job is [that] I get to learn something new each day, and I invariably learn it from my students,” he says.
Dr. Milstein’s selection as an Eminent Professor was announced during the 2022 Honors College Student Association Spring Gala by Associate Dean Rodgers. “My first reaction to hearing I had been awarded this recognition was a ‘deer in the headlights’ moment. I had come to the honors gala to celebrate my students’ successes. I had not expected to hear Dean Rodgers call my name from the podium,” he says.
Dr. Kathleen Bogart has been a faculty member in the School of Psychological Science in the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State since 2012. Her research spans the study of disability, ableism and rare disorders — areas in which she not only specializes, but for which she is an avid advocate. She is the faculty advisor for OSU’s Disabled Students Union, serves on the Moebius Syndrome Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and the American Psychological Association Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology, and co-founded the Disability Advocacy and Research Network (DARN!), a community for disabled psychology scholars and allies. Her work has been featured in publications from the New York Times and Psychology Today, to the Financial Times and Science Magazine.
“My first reaction was complete surprise and delight! I had no idea one of my students sneakily nominated me for this award,” says Dr. Bogart of her nomination and selection.
Over the course of ten years at Oregon State, Dr. Bogart has mentored six honors students and served on the thesis committees of many more.
“I have been working on my thesis with Dr. Bogart since fall 2020,” says Annelise Hartinger, the fourth-year honors student who nominated Dr. Bogart. Living with disability, Annelise has pursued opportunities that she may have otherwise left unexplored, in addition to making progress on her thesis, through the guidance of Dr. Bogart. “I have never worked with anyone who was able to balance motivation and accommodation the way she does to foster my growth as much as possible.”
Students like Annelise, Dr. Bogart believes, are drawn to her work because it introduces projects aimed at making the world a better place for those living with disabilities. “One of my favorite things about mentoring is that I get to bring together students with lived experience of disability or who are allies in my lab. We all learn from each other. It is very satisfying to guide a student toward finding an actionable research project that is meaningful to them and the community.”
“Congratulations to these outstanding mentors and teachers,” says Associate Dean Rodgers. “They represent the very best of the Honors College and Oregon State University, and I am so happy to recognize their many contributions to our community.”
By: Adriana Fischer, Media and Communications Representative
CATEGORIES: All Stories Courses and Faculty Features News Uncategorized