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2025 BINSWANGER PRIZES FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING

Each year, Wesleyan University recognizes three outstanding faculty members with the awarding of the Binswanger Prizes for Excellence in Teaching. Underscoring Wesleyan’s commitment to its scholar-teachers, these annual prizes are made possible by gifts from the family of the late Frank G. Binswanger Sr., Hon’85. Recipients are chosen each spring by a committee composed of faculty and members of the Alumni Association Executive Committee based upon strong recommendations from alumni of the last 10 graduating classes, as well as current juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

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    David Constantine

    Dave Constantine is an associate professor of mathematics. A versatile educator, he has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses since joining Wesleyan in 2012. Particular teaching interests include courses in geometry, analysis, and probability, all of which have strong connections to his research. While at Wesleyan he developed an interest in teaching statistics, and he has worked to broaden and strengthen the department’s offerings, from the introductory-level Elementary Statistics through advanced major-level courses like Mathematical Statistics. He has served as a research mentor for a number of undergraduates and considers teaching and mentoring graduate students to be one of his favorite parts of working at Wesleyan.

    Constantine received his PhD from the University of Michigan and was a postdoc at the University of Chicago before coming to Wesleyan. He researches problems at the boundary of geometry and dynamics, often focusing on geodesic flows and rigidity phenomena, and he collaborates with a number of other mathematicians. A recent project, funded by an American Institute of Mathematics grant, developed aspects of thermodynamic formalism for geodesic flows on CAT(0) spaces. This work allowed Constantine to collaborate with four other mathematicians, including a former Wesleyan PhD student. His work has been published in various mathematics journals.
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    Logan Dancey

    Logan Dancey is an associate professor of government with research and teaching interests in the US Congress, campaigns and elections, and public opinion. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and Political Behavior. He is also a co-author (with Kjersten Nelson and Eve Ringsmuth) of the book It’s Not Personal: Politics and Policy in Lower Court Confirmation Hearings. In his teaching at Wesleyan, especially in his Campaigns and Elections and Public Opinion and Polling Lab courses, he has engaged students in conducting and analyzing surveys of local voters and Wesleyan students. He has co-authored two peer-reviewed publications with former students and had students present their research at the Midwest, Southern, and New England Political Science Association Conferences.

    Dancey holds a BA from the University of Puget Sound and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. He was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh prior to joining the Wesleyan faculty in 2012. He was awarded the University’s 2014–15 Carol A. Baker ’81 Memorial Prize recognizing accomplishments of junior faculty. His current research focuses on the federal judicial confirmation process, political polarization in the public and in Congress, and Americans’ perceptions of the state of US democracy.
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    Camilla Zamboni

    Camilla Zamboni is an associate professor of the practice in Italian. Since 2014, she has coordinated the Italian language program in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Her expertise in language acquisition, pedagogy, and open educational resources (OER) led to the creation of Assaggi, an OER curriculum used at Wesleyan in intermediate Italian courses. In the College of Education Studies, Zamboni is part of the core faculty and teaches the Educational Gaming Lab, a course where students discuss and create educational games.

    Known for her innovative work in analog game-based learning and tabletop game design, Zamboni is often an invited speaker on these topics. Her recent scholarship includes the co-edited volume Roll for Learning (2024), a curated collection of educational micro tabletop role-playing games, and articles on the interplay of pedagogy and game design such as “Language, Play, Storytelling: Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Italian L2 Classroom” (2025). Affiliated with the College of Design and Engineering Studies, Zamboni oversees the IDEAS interactive media and game design minor concentration. Also affiliated with the Fries Center for Global Studies, she developed the Italian Gaming Lab, a Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum course that focuses on using and designing games for language learning, and has served on the advising board for the global engagement minor and the Language Collective.

Previous Binswanger Recipients

  • Recipients

    • 2024: Abigail S. Hornstein, Michelle Aaron Murolo, Rashida Z. Shaw McMahon
    • 2023: Matthew Garrett, A. Meredith Hughes, Tushar Irani
    • 2022: Frederick M. Cohan, Maria Ospina, Victoria Smolkin
    • 2021: Sonali Chakravarti, Douglas A. Martin, Anna Shusterman
    • 2020: Gloster Aaron, Robyn Autry, Keiji Shinohara
    • 2019: Erika Franklin Fowler, Brian Northrop, Joseph Siry
    • 2018: Lisa Dombrowski ’92, Iddrisu Saaka, Erika A. Taylor
    • 2017: John E. Finn, Andrea Roberts, Mary-Jane Rubenstein
    • 2016: Sally Bachner, Demetrius Eudell, James Lipton
    • 2015: Michael Calter, David Schorr, Gina Ulysse
    • 2014: Petra Bonfert-Taylor, Robert Steele, Xiaomiao Zhu
    • 2013: Phillip Wagoner, Erik Grimmer-Solem, Jeanine Basinger
    • 2012: Richard Adelstein, Nathanael Greene, Tula Telfair
    • 2011: Wai Kiu Chan, Scott Higgins, Scott Plous
    • 2010: Peter Rutland, Stephanie Kuduk Weiner, Jeremy Zwelling
    • 2009: Douglas C. Foyle, Irina Russu, John G. Seamon
    • 2008: Elizabeth McAlister, Howard I. Needler, Renee Christine Romano
    • 2007: Joyce Jacobsen, Richard Slotkin, T. David Westmoreland
    • 2006: Stephen Angle, Anthony Braxton, Anne Greene
    • 2005: Jonathan Cutler, Jelle De Boer, Karl Scheibe
    • 2004: Allan Berlind, Sean McCann, James McGuire
    • 2003: William Herbst, Joseph Rouse, Janice Willis
    • 2002: Susan Lourie, Cecilia Miller, Franklin Reeve
    • 2001: Richard Elphick, Gayle Pemberton, Gilbert Skillman
    • 2000: Jon Barlow, Ronald Cameron, Rob Rosenthal
    • 1999: Donald Moon, Kachig Toloyan, Hope Weissman
    • 1998: Indira Karamcheti, Scott Plous, Ashraf Rushdy
    • 1997: John Paoletti, Claire Potter, Richard Slotkin
    • 1996: Jeanine Basinger, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Ann Wightman
    • 1995: Henry Abelove, Ralph Baierlein, Martha Crenshaw
    • 1994: Christina Crosby, John E. Finn, Joseph Siry
    • 1993: Richard Adelstein, George Creeger, Cheryl Cutler 

Binswanger Prize Criteria and Regulations

The standards and criteria for the annual prizes shall be excellence in teaching, as exemplified by commitment to the classroom and student accomplishment, intellectual demands placed on students, lucidity, and passion. Recommendations may be based on any of the types of teaching that are done at the University including, but not limited to, teaching in lecture courses, seminars, laboratories, creative and performance-based courses, research tutorials and other individual and group tutorials at the undergraduate and graduate level.

  • Section I: Eligibility

    Current faculty who have taught at Wesleyan for at least 10 years are eligible. Previous recipients are excluded for a period of 12 years after which they become eligible once again.

  • Section II: Selection Critieria

    The criteria for selecting the recipients shall be excellence in teaching, as exemplified by commitment to the classroom and student accomplishment, intellectual demands placed on students, lucidity and passion. Recommendations may be based on any of the types of teaching that are done at the University including, but not limited to, teaching in lecture courses, seminars, laboratories, creative and performance-based courses, research tutorials and other individual and group tutorials at the undergraduate and graduate level.

  • Section III: Granting of Prizes

    One to three recipients shall be chosen each year in accordance with these Regulations. The names of the recipients shall be communicated to the University by a designated committee member, and the Prizes shall be awarded at Commencement by the Chair of the Alumni Association.

  • Section IV: Understanding Between the Alumni Association and the University

    Sections I, II, III, and IV of these regulations reflect the current understanding between the Alumni Association and the University with respect to the Prize. The University reserves the right to make changes to the Prize, including but not limited to the Terms of Eligibility; Selection Criteria; number, dollar value, and timing of the Prize. The University also reserves the right to reassign responsibility for administering the selection process and to notify the Chair of the Alumni Association of any changes at least two weeks prior to the fall meeting of the Executive Committee, during the school year for which such changes are to be applicable. The Alumni Association reserves the right not to maintain responsibility for administering the selection process. The Chair of the Association will notify the University of any change no later than one week following the fall meeting of the Executive Committee during the school year for which that decision is applicable.

  • Section V: Selection Committee

    There shall be a Selection Committee, consisting of 5-7 members (one of whom shall be its Chair), whose duty it shall be, among other duties, to canvass students and alumni for recommendations and to convene in the spring to consider these recommendations and choose the recipients of the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

    The Selection Committee will consist of the vice chair of the Alumni Association, three faculty members representing each of the three academic divisions, and up to three members at large, all to be selected by the Chair of the Alumni Association. Members of the Selection Committee shall serve a maximum of four years in any seven-year period. The Chair will appoint members of the Selection Committee such that, in any year, at least one faculty member and one other member of the Selection Committee shall have served on the Selection Committee the previous year. The chair of the Alumni Association will designate one member of the Selection Committee to serve as Chair of the Selection Committee.

  • Section VI: Selection Procedure

    Alumni eligible to submit recommendations shall consist of the members of each of the last ten graduating classes, (BA and graduate alumni), and current juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Alumni shall be contacted solely by email.

    At least ten weeks prior to the scheduled meeting of the Selection Committee, the Committee shall send to alumni with known email addresses in the appropriate classes, and current juniors, seniors, and graduate students an email requesting up to three recommendations, ranked in order of preference, with written comments optional. An alphabetical list of eligible faculty with departmental affiliations will be included. The Selection Committee shall contact the three academic deans requesting any information they consider relevant to awarding the Prize. Two weeks after the initial mailing a second email will be sent to eligible alumni with known email addresses, and current juniors, seniors, and graduate students. All recommendations received up to two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting of the Selection Committee will be accepted.

    The recommended faculty members will be ranked as follows: Three points are given for a first place showing, two points for a second place showing, and one point for a third place showing. Based upon these rankings, the Selection Committee will request from the Office of Academic Affairs the teaching evaluations of a group of faculty for review by the Committee.

    The Selection Committee shall make its determinations in accordance with the Selection Criteria. In making its determinations, the Committee may consider the number of recommendations and point total received by faculty members, the quality of their teaching evaluations, the quality of comments included with recommendations, whether a candidate has been recommended in previous years, whether a candidate has been awarded the Prize in previous years, and such other factors as the Selection Committee may deem relevant.

    The Chair of the Selection Committee shall notify the Chair of the Alumni Association of the Selection Committee's determinations.

  • Section VII: Amendments

    Any amendment to these Regulations shall be approved by the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association.

    As adopted by the Alumni Association Executive Committee on March 4, 2000 and amended on October 21, 2000, March 4, 2001, November 2, 2001, September 21, 2003, September 24, 2005, and November 1, 2008.