Ted Burczak
GRANVILLE, Ohio—Ted Burczak, professor of economics at Denison University, was presented the 2012 Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award at the University’s Academic Award Convocation in Swasey Chapel on April 13, 2012. Burczak also was honored with the Beverly Fleischman Endowed Professorship at the ceremony.
Provost Bradley Bateman said that “Burczak is well known at Denison for his enthusiasm for teaching. He is one of the most popular teachers in a very popular major, regularly drawing overflow enrollments for his classes. Students rave about his courses, not because he is entertaining or accommodating, but because they say they learn to think about difficult questions when they study with him.”
Bateman continued, “It is a hallmark of Burczak’s teaching that he brings his cutting-edge scholarship into the undergraduate classroom. While his scholarship has won wide acclaim and many professional kudos, he has no trouble engaging Denison’s undergraduates in the same questions that he researches and explores.”
The winner of the Brickman Award is chosen annually by a faculty committee of previous awardees, along with the provost and associate provost. Nominees must be tenured members of Denison’s teaching faculty who are models of commitment to teaching and who also have strong records of dedication to students inside and outside the classroom. The recipient must have demonstrated a vibrant interest in the learning process, as well as an understanding of teaching as a continuously evolving art form: someone who embraces the teaching and mentoring of students, not just as a profession, but as a calling.
Burczak’s areas of special interest include macroeconomic theory, monetary economics and the history of economic thought. He was awarded the Smith Center Prize for Best Book for “Socialism After Hayek” in 2007.
Burczak received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1986 and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts in 1994.
Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement, and the cultivation of independent thinking.
