Dickinson History Professor Emily Pawley Honored with Award for Inspirational Teaching
The Constance & Rose Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching
by Craig Layne
Every Dickinson Commencement comes with a surprise moment for the faculty member who has been chosen for the annual Constance & Rose Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching. Each year, seniors vote on this prestigious award via secret ballot. On May 18, Class of 2026 President Mina Lee revealed that Emily Pawley, associate professor of history and Walter E. Beach ’56 Chair in Sustainability Studies, would receive the only student-bestowed faculty accolade at the college.
Lee read the citation as Pawley wiped tears from her eyes and received congratulations from colleagues seated around her. “She is consistently praised as an engaging, knowledgeable and supportive educator, who fosters an inclusive and flexible learning environment,” said Lee. “Students highlight her ability to connect course material to real-world issues, encourage critical thinking and present complex topics in an illuminating and accessible way.”
“This award means a lot to me particularly because I’ve been trying for years to retool my teaching to escape an early and probably deserved reputation as the most depressing professor in the history department,” Pawley said. “I teach a lot of environmental history courses, particularly courses that focus on the history of the climate crisis—these were initially not so much inspirational as they were terrifying.”
Pawley said students led her to rethink her pedagogical approach to climate change. “In conversations with my early students I learned that there was a problem with the way I talked about climate change in class; in fact, my teaching wasn’t just depressing; it was wrong,” she said. “I taught the students the deep roots of climate problems but left them with the historically inaccurate impression that solutions existed only in the future, that solutions had no roots of their own.”
Turning to her students for help in building a history of climate solutions, Pawley said collaborative inquiry has become a hallmark of her classroom. “In class after class they have helped me to write that history, researching the histories of solar panels, climate finance, climate negotiations, tree planting, walkable cities, biogas and mutual aid networks, just to name a few examples,” she said. “Lessons from my history of climate change students have begun to percolate through the rest of my classes and have changed the trajectory of my research, including my forthcoming collaborative handbook.”
“During these last four years I have certainly learned as much from this class of students as they have learned from me, so it is amazing to receive this recognition from them,” Pawley said.
Lee, the class president, agreed, stating Pawley’s “teaching style, enthusiasm and care for students make her courses both highly impactful and one of the most memorable and rewarding academic experiences for our class.”
Established in 1969 through a bequest from the late William A. Ganoe, class of 1902, the award recognizes a faculty member who has inspired students throughout their college careers. The award includes a cash honorarium and the opportunity to use money from the Ganoe Memorial Fund to purchase books for the library or educational equipment for departmental or college-wide use.
In 2023, Dickinson’s faculty selected Pawley as the recipient of the college’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the institution’s highest faculty honor for teaching excellence. With the Ganoe Award, Pawley joins four other Dickinson faculty members to have received both the college’s top faculty-voted and student-voted teaching honors.
Pawley’s teaching interests include environmental history, the history of capitalism, the history of the body, landscape history, the history of science, and the history of food and food production. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and earned a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Published June 22, 2026