Alumni Association Home > Past Distinguished Teaching Award Recipients

"I believe my students learn more about international relations theory when they are asked to think about how they can or cannot help us explain specific events occurring in the world."
-- Kathryn Sikkink

If a teacher's success is measured by the number of students who want to emulate her, Kathryn Sikkink is very successful. Higher education is full of her former students and advisees, who all seem to agree with the one who says, "When I can, I try to be more like her."

Sikkink definitely thinks globally. As a political science professor, she focuses on international politics, Latin American politics, and human rights, with an eye toward preparing her students to research, teach, and work on global issues. When she saw there was no single department that encompassed human rights research and practice, she founded the Human Rights Program in the College of Liberal Arts. The result was not only a human rights minor, but a program that links University students and faculty with human rights professionals in the community. Sikkink also does extensive work with the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability, and Justice—the University's primary interdisciplinary graduate training program in international studies.

But it's as a mentor that Sikkink touches the most lives. "Wonderful," "outstanding," and "unsurpassed" are some of the sentiments invoked by former advisees. One concludes, "Professor Sikkink's greatest impact, however, is the way she modeled for me what it means to be a committed and caring human being…and I simply cannot imagine a finer teacher, scholar, or person more deserving of this award."