Five Vanderbilt Law professors–James F. Blumstein, Tracey E. George, Kevin Stack, Ingrid Wuerth, and Nicholas S. Zeppos–received 2021 Hall-Hartman Awards for Outstanding Teaching from the Vanderbilt Bar Association.
George, Wuerth and Zeppos were honored for first-year courses, while Blumstein and Stack were honored for upper-level courses.
Hall-Hartman Awards are based on a student poll administered by the VBA. The annual awards, which recognize excellent teaching of both first-year and upper-level classes, are given to one professor in each of Vanderbilt’s three first-year sections and to two professors who taught upper-level courses, with separate categories for large classes with 30 students or more and classes with fewer than 30 students.
Hall-Hartman Awards are a longstanding Vanderbilt tradition recognizing faculty whose teaching is deemed outstanding in each first-year student section and for large and small upper-level elective courses. The awards are named in honor of former professors Donald J. Hall and Paul Hartman, both of whom spent their academic careers at Vanderbilt and were revered for their teaching.
“These awards are hard to win because we have so many outstanding teachers on our faculty, so they are coveted,” Dean Chris Guthrie said. “Professors cherish this recognition because it comes directly from the students they’ve taught this year.”
Ingrid Wuerth, who holds the Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law, was honored by students in Section A for her first-year Civil Procedure class. A leading scholar of foreign affairs and international law in domestic courts, Wuerth currently serves associate dean for research. She currently directs the Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program and has previously directed the International Legal Studies Program.
Nicholas S. Zeppos, who holds the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chancellor Emeritus Chair and is a University Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science, was honored by first-year students in Section B for his class in Civil Procedure. Zeppos served as chancellor of Vanderbilt University from 2008 to 2019 and then rejoined the law faculty. He has served on the Vanderbilt Law faculty since 1987.
Tracey E. George, who holds the Charles B. Cox III and Lucy D. Cox Family Chair in Law and Liberty, was honored by first-year students in Section C for her Contracts class. George currently serves as vice provost for faculty affairs for Vanderbilt University and is a professor of political science. In addition to teaching Contracts to first-year students, George teaches an introduction to law school course, The Life of the Law, which she created with colleague Suzanna Sherry along with the course textbook and teaching materials.
James F. Blumstein
, who is the University Professor of Constitutional Law and Health Law and Policy and a professor of management at the Owen Graduate School of Management, was honored in the Hall Division for his Constitutional Law I class. The Hall Division recognizes upper-level teaching in classes of 30 students or more. Blumstein is an expert in constitutional law whose scholarship addresses health law, law and medicine, and voting rights.
Kevin Stack, who holds the Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Chair in Law, was recognized in the Hartman Division, which recognizes upper-level teaching in classes of fewer than 30 students, for his class in Election Law and Campaign Finance. Stack co-authored, with Vanderbilt colleagues Lisa Bressman and Edward Rubin, The Regulatory State, the textbook for Vanderbilt’s first-year course. He has served as a member of the Council of the Administrative and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association and is a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
The awards were announced by the Vanderbilt Bar Association this month.