The Archaeological Institute of America has awarded Millsaps anthropology professor Michael Galaty its 2010 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. He will be presented with the award at the AIA annual meeting in January.
“Michael is a true teacher-scholar, his scholarship strengthens his teaching and his teaching strengths his scholarship,” said George Bey, anthropology professor and associate dean of international education at Millsaps College.
Galaty joined the faculty at Millsaps College in 1999 and has since taught 23 different courses. He is known for his creative, dynamic teaching style seen especially in his “Anthropological Films and Filmmaking” class where students studied and then produced ethnographic films as a way to record and understand human behavior.
“Michael takes young scholars and does not simply work with them in a class, or even in a major. He works with them to create mature, competitive scholars,” Bey said. “He helps them take advantage of every opportunity available and works with them so they fully realize their intellectual potential.”
As an active field archaeologist, Galaty regularly leads field schools in northern Albania and in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.
His students’ achievements highlight his teaching ability. In recent years two students have won all-expense paid trips to Hungary to participate in the Körös Regional Archaeological Project. Both have gone on to graduate programs in anthropology with full fellowships. Another student received a 2008 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship to spend a year in Albania.
“His passion for teaching leaves a lasting impact on his students,” said Doc Billingsley, a 2005 Millsaps graduate and currently an anthropology graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis. “The opportunities that he provided and helped me to access made all the difference in my direction as a scholar, and in my level of preparation for graduate studies.”
The AIA award is given to one individual each year who has demonstrated excellence in the teaching of archaeology, developed innovative teaching methods or interdisciplinary curricula and has at least five years of teaching experience.
Galaty earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors from Grinnell College and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2008 he received Millsaps’ Distinguished Professor Award.
