Eric Eliason, professor of English at Gustavus Adolphus College, received the 2012 Swenson-Bunn Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence at the College’s Honors Day convocation on Saturday, May 5. The award, nominated by students and selected by a vote of the Student Senate, has been presented annually since 1990.
Eliason started teaching at Gustavus in 1989, and also served as an academic dean in the Office of the Provost from 2005 to 2009. Within the English department, Eliason teaches courses in literature and language with a special emphasis on British literature. He also teaches in the First Term Seminar program and in 2011 served as program director for the College’s Semester in Sweden. He was the 2000 recipient of the Edgar M. Carlson Award for Distinguished Teaching – the highest honor granted to a member of the Gustavus faculty. Eliason also received the 2010 Faculty Service Award, given annually to a faculty member whose service has improved the College.
Eliason earned his bachelor’s degree in English, mathematics, and computer science from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., in 1982. He went on to earn his master’s degree and Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia.
The Swenson-Bunn Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence honors the memory of two Gustavus students and members of the Student Senate, Greg Swenson and Holly Bunn, who were killed in a car accident in 1989.
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