2020 Teaching Excellence Award

Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences.

He is also a 2020 recipient of the John P. Raynor, S.J. Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.

Wheelock has built a reputation as a professor who pushes students to think critically and intentionally about issues of great importance to the Marquette community and beyond. Department colleagues recognize Wheelock as priding himself on living out Marquette’s Jesuit principles and values.

A colleague who nominated Wheelock for the award specifically pointed out Wheelock’s care for his students, “Darren not only knows each student by his or her name, he also invests time getting to know them on a much deeper and more holistic level. Darren believes that to teach in a Jesuit institution, and to follow its mission, he must care for the whole student. This means Darren spends time — both in and out of the classroom — getting to know his students.”

One student wrote that Wheelock’s words of encouragement have had a long-lasting, positive impact on their life and education.

“One day after class, Dr. Wheelock told me that he appreciated my contributions to an earlier discussion and asked if I had ever considered conducting research in the future. I had not and couldn’t fathom myself as a young African American woman in such an esteemed position,” she wrote in her nomination letter. “Yet, both throughout the remainder of the course and even after the course, he often reminded me criminology and sociology needed someone with my unique insight. Though he may not have known at the time, those words encouraged me to begin imagining what was possible — and for that I am forever grateful.”

Wheelock said his teaching is inspired by the capacity for human action, community and change.