AUSTIN, Texas—The Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation honored University of Texas Radio-Television-Film Professor Charles Ramirez Berg with the 2003 Piper Professor Award.
“Professor Ramirez Berg represents the high caliber of faculty in the college,” said Dr. Ellen Wartella, dean of the College of Communication. “Not only is he an accomplished scholar, but he is an excellent teacher.”
Since 1958, fifteen awards of $5,000 each have been given annually to professors for outstanding academic, scientific and scholarly achievement and for dedication to the teaching profession. Selection is made on the basis of nominations submitted by each college or university in the state of Texas. In addition, recipients receive a certificate and a gold pin commemorating the award.
“I’m thrilled to death,” said Ramirez Berg. “It used to be thought that it was a zero-sum game: you were either a good teacher or a good scholar. It’s exciting and heartening to be recognized for being both.”
Ramirez Berg, who was inducted into the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1996, has also earned the Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship and the College of Communication Teaching Excellence Award. He was one of the first recipients of the Texas Exes’ Texas Excellence Teaching Award.
Ramirez Berg earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1969, followed by a master’s degree in communication in 1975 and a doctor’s degree in communication in 1987, both from The University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to teaching, Ramirez Berg is the author of three books and is currently working on a fourth titled “The Story of Film: A Stylistic History of the Movies,” a film history textbook. He has also written several book chapters and scholarly articles. Currently, Ramirez Berg teaches Broadcast and Film Writing I and Stereotyping. He also writes poetry, fiction and screenplays and has written one children’s book.
For more information contact: Erin Geisler, College of Communication, 512-475-8071.
