Michele Friedner, Professor and Chair in the Department of Comparative Human Development, is one of four to be awarded the 2024 Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award, believed to be the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching. 

Friedner approaches teaching by encouraging her students to learn different ways of seeing and experiencing taken-for-granted objects, processes and practices, inspired by her own experience as an undergraduate student when she was challenged by her professor to identify the shape of a rabbit from moon craters. She teaches courses in disability anthropology and sensory anthropology, as well as classes in the Self, Culture and Society Core sequence. Friedner also teaches a course in the “Big Problems” Curriculum, elective capstone experiences designated for third- and fourth-year students, alongside Jennifer Iverson in the Department of Music, called “Disability and Design.” 

Congratulations, Professor Friedner, for this great honor!