Five Arts and Humanities faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences have received 2016 Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards.

The Ratner Awards recognize faculty for making a difference in students' educations, lives and careers. Candidates are chosen for creative teaching and exemplary records of engaging, motivating and inspiring students. Each Ratner Award includes a $10,000 cash prize plus a $10,000 teaching account to fund future projects.

2016 Ratner Award recipients are:

• Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Associate Professor, Linguistics
• Tommy Davis, Associate Professor, English
• Tom Hawkins, Associate Professor, Classics
• Jennifer Schlueter, Associate Professor, Theatre
• Karl Whittington, Associate Professor, History of Art

Cleveland’s Ronald Ratner served on Ohio State's Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2015, appointed by former Governor Ted Strickland. Ratner is executive vice president and director of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., and president of Forest City Residential Group. Deborah B. Ratner is the founder of ArtWorks, a Cleveland-based arts apprenticeship program and Reel Women Direct, an award for women film directors. In 2014, they generously gave $1 million to establish the Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards. In addition, Forest City Enterprises has donated space in Cleveland at Tower City for The Ohio State University Recruitment and Outreach Center, aimed at increasing the overall college-going rate for the greater Cleveland area.

Jennifer Schlueter, Associate Professor, Theatre
Jennifer Schlueter is known for the excellence of her teaching, having received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor award. She designs her courses to inspire reflection, asking students “to step away, however tentatively, from the limiting comforts of certainty.” As a playwright, director and historian, she teaches her students to connect all aspects of theatrical representation and performance. She founded and continues to mentor The Lab Series, a performance research laboratory focused exclusively on student-led work. Through this, in the courses she teaches, and in her own research, Schlueter connects theory, history, creation and practice. She proposes to use the grant funding to provide opportunities for her students to take their work from the Lab Series to fringe festivals and other production venues so that they can continue their lines of creative inquiry and test their work before the general public.

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