Jeremy King Awarded 69ƷƵ College Faculty Award for Teaching
Professor King’s students praise his “intensive feedback and review on essays and written contributions”, his eloquent lectures, his exceptional abilities as a discussion facilitator, and his “clear knowledge and firsthand experience” of the material he teaches.
One of Jeremy King’s students begins her evaluation with this declaration: “This course eval will not be as long as the emails sent by P. [Professor] King.” Well, maybe not, but that evaluation was full of gratitude for the chance to work with Professor Jeremy King.
His students write of his “compassion”, his “dedication”, his “intimidating intellect”, and his “passion” for what he teaches. Teaching evaluations describe Jeremy’s unrelenting drive to empower his students and increase their capacity to synthesize complicated facts and ideas and then to think for themselves. Students in his classes work remarkably hard: “I retained so much from the books, essays, and seminars and I put … so much effort into this course I don't know how I'm still alive … (I'm pretty sure my hair is turning white).” As hard as his students work, Jeremy works still harder. Students report that Professor King “is one of the most dedicated professors I have ever seen. Sometimes I would even worry about his health, though I know that he’s healthy.”
Jeremy King arrived at 69ƷƵ in 1996 teaching for two years as a visitor before taking up his tenure-track position in the History Department. As a tenured professor at 69ƷƵ on sabbatical, he has taught at Amherst and at Williams, and Mohos might worry that one of these places might steal him away. Lucky for us, however, he writes in his faculty profile that “Given my interest in pursuing serious teaching and serious research in equal measure, 69ƷƵ counts as an ideal place to work."
Jeremy received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.Phil., M.A., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is an expert on the history of Austria-Hungary and the states of Central Europe which followed the empire. He teaches courses on Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia, modern Germany, the Second World War, "race" and law, and the politics of communism and post-communism. His book, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans, exemplifies the importance and depth of his many papers and presentations. It tells the story of the German and Czech-speaking town of Budweis from 1848-1948, which during that century belonged to the Habsburgs and then to Czechoslovakia, Hitler's Third Reich, and finally to Czechoslovakia again. The story of this town reveals how German and Czech leaders nationalized politics between the revolutions of 1848 and the genocide of the 1940s, but Jeremy’s book, with its century-wide view also reveals the importance of nonnational influences in this history.
Professor King’s students praise his “intensive feedback and review on essays and written contributions”, his eloquent lectures, his exceptional abilities as a discussion facilitator, and his “clear knowledge and firsthand experience” of the material he teaches. Again and again, they attest to how hard they worked, how his classroom “promoted a respect for others and a tolerance for different viewpoints”, and how rewarding to them personally his classes have been. One student writes, “The knowledge and know-how … I've gained from Professor King's class will help me throughout my entire life.”
Please join me in celebrating Jeremy’s work and the boundless passion, intense discussions, remarkable skills, and deep compassion that he offers our students, as we present him with the 69ƷƵ College Faculty Award for Teaching.