Historian Selected Plous Lecturer

For a relative neophyte, Alice O'Connor, an associate professor in the Department of History, is pretty good at this teaching thing. Though O'Connor has only taught for five years, her students rave about her enthusiasm in their quarterly evaluations. Colleagues marvel at her innovative techniques.

For her efforts, O'Connor has been awarded the 2000 Harold J. Plous Memorial Award. It is given annually to an assistant professor or instructor from the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences who has demonstrated outstanding performance, or promise of performance, as measured by creative action or contribution to the intellectual life of the college community. O'Connor was an assistant professor when first nominated.

"In her teaching, she is simply incredible," said Plous Selection Committee Chair Omer Blaes, an associate professor in physics.

O'Connor, who came to UCSB in 1994, says that her first foray into teaching has been exciting. She enjoys the challenges teaching offers, and especially the joy of watching her students learn.

"When a student sitting in your class says something like, 'This is so interesting,' or 'You really opened my eyes to why things are the way they are,' that really is a such a payoff," O'Connor said.

To help students in her American history classes, which cover from 1920 to the present, understand these times better, O'Connor added bits of culture to the mix of names, dates, places, and political acts.

Much of her research and writing involves studies of poverty and urban inequality from a perspective of historical origins. "I try to keep up a conversation between the past and the present," she said.