Treasured professor creates dialogue with students

Imagine delivering a lecture to 200 students without notes. UC Davis historian David Biale says he does it because it keeps him focused on a dialogue with his students.

The winner of the annual $40,000 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, awarded last spring, talks with Aggie Family Pack about undergraduate teaching.

Biale, who is chair of the Department of History and the Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History, says he engages students by asking philosophical questions and sometimes surprising them with concepts they’ve never considered.

“I like very much being able to present to students something they have never heard before,” Biale said. “When you have undergraduate students, you are more likely to have that experience than with graduate students.”

Biale, who is the founding director of the Jewish Studies Program, has authored 10 books and published about 74 scholarly articles. He has won the National Jewish Book Award three times and held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

But all of that academic acclaim hasn’t distanced him from what he says is his principal focus—introducing students to ideas they’ve never considered. As an example, he cites the 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, who challenged the idea of free will. “Students struggle with that idea,” Biale said.

Even when teaching classes to hundreds of students, Biale keeps his approach dynamic, sometimes posing dilemmas for students to consider, or asking classes to keep a reading journal.

“Undergraduate teaching is one of the main reasons I’m here,” says Biale, who first came to campus in 1999.

Biale said he is also been pleased to have become something of a mentor to his students, and he invites them to come and discuss history or any other issues of significance to young people tackling the task of living as adults.

“It’s really very important to work with students who are having problems,” Biale said. “I have walked students to the counseling center and said, ‘You need to do this.’”

As a professor of history, Biale said he’s sure that what his department teaches will continue to resonate with students, even as debate continues about what constitutes a marketable education.

“We are teaching material that is of compelling interest, that is essential to being a good citizen,” Biale said. “It’s not designed necessarily to get you a job, but it is designed to make you a good critical thinker and writer, and these are essential tools in today’s economy.”

Biale said he has given half of the $40,000 teaching prize as a matching grant to encourage others to donate to the Fund for the Future of History. The fund supports research and programs that involve undergraduates more closely with the academic life of the history department.

Created by philanthropists, the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement recognizes faculty excellence. Each year, a selection committee composed of faculty, students and representatives from the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees chooses the recipient. The prize is believed to be the largest of its kind in the country.