Departments
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5 June 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 32 |
Feature Article
Eckel, Samons receive 1998 Metcalf Awards
by Eric McHenry
The Metcalf honors were established in 1974 by the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf (SED'35, Hon.'74), who was a longtime chairman of the University's Board of Trustees. The prizes recognize a professor's scholarship, dedication, and commitment to students. Candidates are recommended by students, faculty, and alumni and undergo an extensive review process by a committee of faculty and students. The 1998 Metcalf Cup and Prize winner is Sharon Levine (see story, page 1). M. David Eckel and Loren J. Samons II are this year's Metcalf Award recipients.
When ancient traditions are what's new
M. David Eckel, a recipient of the 1998 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, enjoys introducing his students to strange and unfamiliar religious traditions: Christianity, for example.
"I've had a significant number of students over the years who have been raised as Buddhists or Hindus and who find the Christian religious tradition odd," says Eckel, CAS associate professor of religion, who received the $5,000 Metcalf Award during the May 17 Commencement exercises. "They can't quite see how it makes sense."
In the late 1960s, many young Americans began looking to other religions for answers they felt the Christianity they had inherited could not provide. One result has been a wave of second-generation practitioners of Asian religions turning up in college religion courses. Many of them come, Eckel says, seeking "a reflective intellectual grasp of a tradition that was taught to them more experientially," but come away with a newfound appreciation for sacred texts and traditions to which they'd never given much thought.
That suits him just fine. Eckel, whose area of expertise is Buddhism, says unfamiliar topics often provoke the most thoughtful contributions to in-class discussion -- both from his students and from him.
"Buddhism is the religious tradition in which I am constantly immersed," he says, "so I can illustrate a point by recalling a personal encounter with a Tibetan monk in a monastery. I can tell somebody what a particular Buddha in a particular place looks like in the evening light, and what lurks in the low building slightly to the left of the temple. And that is fun, because there is a rich texture to teaching about those things.
"But good teaching has a lot to do with being surprised and with allowing students to be surprised by their own insights, things they recognize, things they see for the first time that they didn't anticipate. Those often come from the areas that you least understand. This semester, some of the material that we work on in the Core Curriculum really came alive for me as it hadn't before."
Eckel earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, his M.A. and B.A. in theology from Oxford University, and another B.A. from Harvard in English. A member of the BU faculty since 1990, he is currently working on his third book, Metaphors Buddhists Live By.
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President Jon Westling speaks
backstage with 1998 Metcalf Award recipients M.
David Eckel (left) and Loren J. Samons II at the
125th Commencement exercises. Photo by Fred Sway
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Loren J. Samons II, a winner of the 1998 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, is deeply committed to classical texts. A student quoted in his award citation, read by Chancellor John Silber at BU's 125th Commencement exercises May 17, wrote that Salmons "knows much of Thucydides by heart."
Samons, CAS assistant professor of classical studies, gratefully accepted the award and reluctantly declines the compliment: "I'm afraid 'much' is an over-statement," he says with a laugh. "Certain passages from Thucydides continually spring to mind as examples, and I use them in class. But the English translation is about 600 pages. A person who had 'much' of Thucydides committed to memory would certainly not be as successful a fly fisherman as I."
Samons, who earned his bachelor's degree at Baylor University and his master's and doctorate at Brown University, has been on the BU faculty since 1993. Trout fishing, he acknowledges, is the one pursuit that can compete with teaching for his affections. Classical texts are not just part of his workday, he says; they are part of his identity.
"I absolutely believe that the experience of the ancients is relevant to the modern world," he says. "I certainly see more clearly the world we live in today through the texts of ancient historians."
To accommodate his teaching, his fishing, his roles as faculty advisor to the Classics House and starter on the Undergraduate Classics Association's intramural basketball team, and a substantial commute from Providence, Samons adheres to a rigorous schedule. He is at work in his BU office, typically, by 6:45 a.m., having found that early morning hours are the most free from distraction.
Samons is similarly demanding of his students. One, also quoted in the citation, recalled receiving a D- from Samons -- a grade the particular paper "indeed deserved," she wrote. "Although Professor Samons gave me the only D of my career, he is the most inspiring teacher I have ever had."
"I do remember that student," says Samons, "although I've certainly given Ds to many students who have then gone on to do extremely well in my classes. I tend to be a harsh grader. I write a lot of comments, and I don't write 'good' or 'excellent' very often. When I do, I think the student finds it particularly meaningful."