UCCS Teaching & Learning Conference

Catherine (Cate) Denial, Ph.D. is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and author of the forthcoming A Pedagogy of Kindness. A distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, Denial won the American Historical Associations’ 2018 Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award. From 2001 to 2011 Denial served as the Lead Historian for Bringing History Home, a professional development program for K-12 educators funded by $3m from the U.S. Department of Education.

Denial’s new book, A Pedagogy of Kindness (2024), argues that higher education needs to get aggressively and determinedly kind. As she says, “We have had our fill of niceness; we have suffered beneath the weight of just 'getting along'. We need to shift every part of what we do to prioritize care and compassion, not only for our students but for ourselves. We deserve change that creates a system of higher education in which we are each valued for the totality of who we are instead of only the products (books, bell curves, patents, performances) we are urged to create.” A Pedagogy of Kindness is about attending to justice, believing people, and believing in people. It’s a transformational discipline.

Cate will present the keynote address on “A Pedagogy of Kindness” on Tuesday and a workshop on “Defending a Pedagogy of Kindness as a Woman Scholar” on Wednesday morning.