American Historical Association honors FDU professor with prestigious award

2015 Oct 27

Peter Burkholder, associate professor of history at Fairleigh Dickinson University and resident of Morristown, NJ, has been awarded the 2015 William and Edwyna Gilbert Award for the Best Article on Teaching History by the American Historical Association.

Burkholder's winning article, "A Content Means to a Critical Thinking End: Group Quizzing in History Surveys," published in "The History Teacher," was one of 38 awardees, who together beat out more than 1,500 contenders.

Previously, this same study was named by Faculty Focus as one of the eight best/most important pedagogical articles published in any field in 2014.

Each year the AHA offers prizes honoring exceptional books, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, public history, and other historical projects. Since 1896 the Association has conferred over a thousand awards. The names, publications, and projects of those who received these awards are a catalog of the best work produced by the historical profession.

The American Historical Association is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies. The AHA provides leadership for the discipline, protects academic freedom, develops professional standards, aids in the pursuit and publication of scholarship, and supplies various services to sustain and enhance the work of its members. As the largest organization of historians in the United States, the AHA is comprised of more than 13,000 members and serves historians representing every historical period and geographical area.

An awards ceremony will take place at the upcoming AHA conference in Atlanta in January 2016.