2016 CULJP Award Recipients
The Consortium of Undergraduate Law and Justice Programs is very pleased to announce the inaugural winners of the Teaching Innovation Award, Shannon Portillo (University of Kansas) and Danielle Rudes (George Mason University). This award recognizes Professors Portillo and Rudes for their excellence and innovation in interdisciplinary legal studies teaching.
The Awards Committee was particularly impressed by their development of the BURST model (Building Undergraduate Research Skills and Techniques), which provides students with the opportunity to consume and produce legal studies scholarship in a capstone course setting. In this model, students conduct original research, with paper writing occurring in an iterative process in which students gather feedback from faculty and peers throughout the semester. This has been an incredible success, as it has increased student learning and resulted in numerous conference paper presentations and publications. Moreover, Professors Portillo and Rudes have been exceptionally generous with regard to sharing their research kit with other legal studies faculty, a model of collegiality to be emulated.
The Awards Committee was particularly impressed by their development of the BURST model (Building Undergraduate Research Skills and Techniques), which provides students with the opportunity to consume and produce legal studies scholarship in a capstone course setting. In this model, students conduct original research, with paper writing occurring in an iterative process in which students gather feedback from faculty and peers throughout the semester. This has been an incredible success, as it has increased student learning and resulted in numerous conference paper presentations and publications. Moreover, Professors Portillo and Rudes have been exceptionally generous with regard to sharing their research kit with other legal studies faculty, a model of collegiality to be emulated.