The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named Dr. George Bey III, professor of anthropology and associate dean of international education at Millsaps College, the 2007 Mississippi Professor of the Year. He is the fourth Millsaps professor to win the honor; previous winners have been Dr. Sarah Lea McGuire (biology), Dr. Bob McElvaine (history) and Dr. Greg Miller (English).
“Being named the 2007 CASE professor of the year for the state of Mississippi is a great personal honor and a testament to the great tradition of undergraduate education at Millsaps College,” said Bey. “These awards are given to professors who are thought to be making an extraordinary difference in the way we teach undergraduates. It is a wonderful confirmation of my efforts to create a unique learning and research environment in Yucatán and to bring my anthropological work into the classroom as a teacher/scholar.”
Bey teaches a broad range of archaeology and anthropology courses, from the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt to American Popular Culture. His area of research interest is Mesoamerican Archaeology, the analysis of prehistoric pottery and the evolution of complex societies, such as the Maya and Toltecs. Since 1984 he has directed field projects in Yucatán, first at the Maya site of Ek Balam and since 2000 at the site of Kiuic, which sits amidst a 4000-acre biocultural reserve created with the support of Millsaps College. The site offers students unique, multidisciplinary opportunities to study Maya archaeology and culture, as well as the flora and fauna of the tropical forests of Yucatán.
Bey also recently received a senior archaeology research grant with his colleague William Ringle (Davidson College) from the National Science Foundation for further research at Kiuic. He has previously been awarded the AAA/McGraw-Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association..
“Dr. Bey has the amazing ability to believe in his students, even when they cannot. The academic support he has given me has been integral to my success at Millsaps. With each new class I take with Dr. Bey comes new intellectual challenges,” says Amy Madjlesi, a senior anthropology major from Corinth, Miss. “His cultural studies courses, such as American Popular Culture and Disney and the American Way of Life, have enabled me to examine the authoritative knowledge of my own society.”
“We are very pleased that that Dr. Bey has been named the 2007 Mississippi Professor of the Year,” said Dr. Richard A. Smith, senior vice president and dean of Millsaps College. “We have long known that he is one of the best teachers of anthropology in the nation; it is also now clear he is one of the best professors in the nation. Millsaps is very fortunate to have him.” Bey was selected from faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.
CASE established the Professors of the Year program in 1981, and the Carnegie Foundation became the co-sponsor a year later. TIAA-CREF, one of America's leading financial services organizations and higher education's premier retirement system, became the primary sponsor for the awards ceremony in 2000. A number of higher education associations, including Phi Beta Kappa, offer additional support for the program.
The U.S. Professors of the Year program, created in 1981, is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring. This year there are winners in 40 states and the District of Columbia. CASE assembled two preliminary panels of judges to select the finalists, and the Carnegie Foundation then convened the third and final panel, which selected four national winners. CASE and Carnegie select the state winners from top entries resulting from the judging process.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie “to do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of teaching.” The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is the largest international association of education institutions, serving more than 3,200 universities, colleges, schools and related organizations in 54 countries.
