The Michael Brintnall Teaching & Learning Award supports faculty attendance at the APSA Teaching & Learning Conference. The award is named in honor of former APSA Executive Director Michael Brintnall, who played an integral role in founding the conference more than a decade ago.The Brintnall award covers the costs of registration for the Teaching & Learning Conference, as well as a one-year complimentary APSA membership. The winner is acknowledged at the 2016 APSA Teaching & Learning Conference’s Opening Keynote Session.
At the University of Tennessee, William A. Jennings, PhD has taught courses on African Politics, South Asian Politics, Political Change in the Global South, Introduction to Political Science, Introduction to International Relations, the department’s Honors Seminar on Globalization, a Howard Baker Center for Public Policy Seminar on “Envisioning Africa’s Future”, and Popular Culture and American Politics. Dr. Jennings’ research interests include numerous presentations and papers at the American Political Science Association and the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, as well as presentations at the International Studies Association South meeting, and African Studies Association meetings.
Dr. Jennings is recognized by his colleagues at the University of Tennessee as a master educator and gifted classroom teaching. Dr. Jennings is an integral part of their undergraduate program, where he has been a lecturer since the fall of 2003. He has been praised by students and colleagues alike for the quality of his lecturers, his enthusiasm for his subject and the teaching profession, and his concern for students. He is also a past winner of multiple teaching awards at UT, including the University of Tennessee’s College of Arts and Sciences Lecture Excellence Teaching Award in 2012. Dr. Jennings has participated in the APSA Teaching & Learning Conference since 2006, at which he has given two papers in 2007 and 2011.