2008 Metcalf Award Winners

T. Jefferson Kline

Professor T. Jefferson Kline has inspired generations of students by his informed passion for French literature and cinema. He has devoted four decades to teaching—for the last thirty years, at Boston University. Whether instructing undergraduate classes or graduate seminars, advising and mentoring students and colleagues, sharing his expertise with high school teachers and faculty members at other universities, or publishing seminal articles and books, Professor Kline is always the consummate teacher. In his words, a life without teaching is unthinkable, and his teaching, infused with an irrepressible joie de vivre, has enriched countless lives.

A colleague wrote that Professor Kline “wants to share life, he wants to make a difference.” He does this by making connections. He uses film as a way of connecting with students—a means of capturing the imagination of those who have been brought up in a culture dominated by visual images, and of leading them toward the written word, toward critical analysis, toward a wider cultural horizon where they can get to know their own and other languages and cultures much better. He wants to help his students interpret great film and great literature and critically decipher the omnipresent visual messages infiltrating their lives. He wants to change the way they look at the world.

Professor Kline is a gifted teacher, passionate about his subject matter, engaging, and entertaining.  Who else would (or could) leap onto a desk or chair while reciting French poetry? “He makes us laugh and learn,” one student said. But another observed: “Though his teaching exuded the freshness and humor of improvisation, I have since realized that it was the result of fastidious planning. He dedicated so much time to course preparation and structure.” Yet another wrote: “Learning really should be an exchange of passions and this is how it is in this class.” The most frequent evaluation: “Professor Kline is one of the best professors I have ever had.”

Valued colleague, compassionate mentor, and dynamic and inspirational teacher, Boston University proudly presents Professor T. Jefferson Kline the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. Merci mille fois.

Andrew Kull

Professor Andrew Kull has transformed the first-year Contracts course in law school from a dry requirement to an exciting and thought-provoking initiation into the legal field. He combines fascinating stories of human nature, the facts, and memorable lessons in “how to think like a lawyer.”  He invariably introduces a new case with the question, “Where are we when the curtain rises?” and then explores the pertinent details. Whether it be the frumpy little old lady who confused a diamond for a topaz, or the woman of ill-repute scheming in the fur salon of Saks Fifth Avenue, this background sheds light on the incentives and motivations of the parties concerned. Students are then well prepared to examine the judicial opinions on the case and analyze the legal issues that helped to shape them. Professor Kull’s Contracts course is simultaneously instruction in deals, payments, ethics, restitution, maritime law, financial history, Red Sox baseball, and life itself. A prolific, prize-winning author, Professor Kull is at the forefront of the study of restitution law in the United States and through his teaching provides his students with rare legal insights.

One Student wrote: “Professor Kull cares little for matters of procedure—he wants the facts, and he wants the human tragicomedy behind them. The first twenty minutes of a ‘Kulltracts’ class are, far and away, the most entertaining of any in the Law Tower, as he manages to find a Hollywood screenplay in every dry offer and acceptance.” Another student commented: “He is extremely approachable, and, even though he is a brilliant scholar, he is first and foremost a teacher. It’s clear he teaches because he loves to; he is what every scholarly law professor should aspire to be—gifted, lovable, humorous, and kind man who desires nothing more than the best for his students.”

With his groundbreaking research, his valuable upper-level course, and especially his engaging Contracts course, Professor Kull has enriched the legal field and all of his students. Boston University proudly presents Professor Andrew Kull with the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching.