Dr. Clark Receives 2024 Culicchia Teaching Award

The College of Arts & Sciences is delighted to announce Dr. Richard Clark, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, as the recipient of this year's Lucrezia Culicchia Award for Teaching Excellence. Professor Clark first joined JCU in 1995 and has had a most impressive career as an educator. It is remarkable how much Dr. Clark has worked outside the classroom to create transformative learning opportunities for our students. For example, he was one of the authors of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program, getting it onto a firm foundation by serving as Director for its first six years. He hosted the JCU Human Rights Film Festival for seven years. He helped launch the Northern Ireland Peacebuilding Program and then led trips to Northern Ireland for ten years.

Dr. Clark also extended the reach of learning opportunities by consistently collaborating within Jesuit and higher education networks. For example, he brought the Jesuit University Humanity Action Networks international conference to our campus. He similarly organized the Climate Change World-Wide Teach-In, staging panels here on campus, while engaging our students with virtual sessions on other campuses. He has organized multiple Jesuit Refugee Services Advocacy Day opportunities, enabling our students to communicate both in-person and online with members of Congress about pressing human rights problems.

In the last few years, Professor Clark has dedicated particular energy to building the Inside/Out Prison Exchange Program. Partnering JCU with the Northeast Ohio Reintegration Center, Prof. Clark, along with Prof. Malia McAndrew, has been teaching classes to a shared audience of incarcerated and traditional JCU students. Dr. Rodney Hessinger, interim Dean of the CAS, expresses his support for this initiative: