Professor Kasper Receives the Distinguished Teaching Award
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has announced the five recipients of the 2025-26 Faculty Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor presented for more than 60 years to instructors at UMass Amherst who demonstrate exemplary teaching at the highest level.
Jeffery Kasper, Associate Professor, Art, teaches courses that center the social, ethical, and civic practices at the heart of art and design. In his teaching, Professor Kasper focuses on guiding student development of “three interrelated capacities: critical inquiry, ethical creative practice, and civic imagination” through building intentional and inclusive learning environments and creating space for ethical and community-based collaboration. As one example, Kasper builds course structures that allow for flexibility and multiple means of engaging with course materials “so students can demonstrate learning in ways that align with their strengths.” As one student shared, “Professor Kasper is an exceptional educator because he consistently combines intellectual rigor with deep empathy and a sophisticated responsiveness to individual learning needs.” Beyond the classroom, Kasper brings this approach to his work as undergraduate program director and to his mentoring of graduate students in the Department of Art. “His efforts have strengthened the departments’ teaching culture and expanded access to inclusive instructional strategies,” one mentee shared.