2023 Teaching Excellence Award

Associate professor of history

Dr. Bryan Rindfleisch’s work is guided by his desire to bring attention to those who have been not just marginalized in — but even erased from — our society. For example, with the Educational Preparedness Program, Rindfleisch is part of a collective that aims to bring together groups who have experienced an array of diverse and difficult life experiences through a lens of pain, vulnerability and healing. Similarly, through the Indigeneity Lab, he is a part of a team thinking beyond the research to what projects could mean for present and future generations of Native students at Marquette and Native communities in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin.

“He is committed to helping students, faculty and the wider public understand how the past continues to shape our present, and thus act to address historical wrongs,” said Dr. Lezlie Knox, chair and associate professor of history.

Rindfleisch is involved in several public history projects, including an app that provides a walking or biking tour of Indigenous Milwaukee, and has contributed to the university through work with Indigenous student groups, the YMCA Unlearning Racism program, University Academic Senate and department committees, and many other similar such service activities.

“Receiving this award is incredibly humbling and an honor that I do not altogether deserve, in my opinion,” Rindfleisch said. “I am the product of so many different teachers and mentors, all of whom have modeled what it is to be a good human being in life and how to respectfully but critically engage other people in the histories and ideas of the many communities that make up our world today.”