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Scott Horstein, Ph.D.

Excellence in Teaching Award, 2019
Sonoma
Theatre Arts & Dance

I help students articulate gut reactions and analyze the patterns and the context for those reactions. I also try to use teaching to build community – to unify parts into a whole.

For Professor Scott Horstein, Sonoma State’s esteemed dramaturg, one of his happiest days of 2018 came on a Thursday in April when about 60 first-year geometry students were at the SSU Recreation Center “exploring embodied learning practices with a radical feminist dance company called ‘Urban Bush Women.’ " Meanwhile, 100 students from business classes were at the University’s Green Music Center participating in a private lecture with the Grammy-Award-winning ensemble ‘Eighth Black Bird.’ The gatherings were part of the Sonoma State’s art-integration program, a teaching initiative managed by Horstein that promotes interdisciplinary learning across majors. In its three years, the arts program has facilitated roughly 6,000 students from various courses - from management to physics to education to criminal justice. Horstein also is respected for his unifying methods in teaching dramaturgy, playwriting, theater history and dramatic literature.