Gutmann Selected as Humanities Teacher Award Recipient from Mississippi Humanities Council
Mon, 02/09/2026 - 01:41pm | By: Morgan Smith
Dr. Timothy Gutmann
The University of Southern Mississippi’s Humanities Teacher Award committee has selected Dr. Timothy Gutmann, an assistant professor of religion in the Philosophy, Religion and Law program in the School of Humanities, to receive the award administered through the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC). Each year, the MHC invites colleges and universities across the state to select a humanities professor at their institution to honor for excellence in teaching.
“The award means a great deal to me,” said Gutmann. “It lets me join the conversation about how to advocate for the humanities and celebrate the richness humanities education has brought to our lives.”
Award recipients present a public lecture, receive a cash award from the MHC and attend the annual awards gala in Jackson, Miss.
Gutmann’s public lecture, titled “Can Ancient Chinese Philosophy Make America Read Again?”, is set for Thursday, Feb. 26, at 5:30 p.m. in Gonzales Auditorium in the Liberal Arts Building (LAB 108) on the Southern Miss Hattiesburg campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
His lecture will explore worldwide declines in reading comprehension among young people and declining interest in reading among adults, along with examples from Chinese history that show how reading shaped education and everyday life in the last 1,000 years of the empire.
Gutmann said he hopes the audience will leave with a renewed perspective on how imperial China’s Confucian scholarly traditions can influence personal flourishing, critical decision-making and a healthy society.
A scholar of Islamic and East Asian thought, Gutmann focuses on education, politics and culture. His forthcoming book, Reform School, studies the emergence of mass education in Egypt and China in the late 1800s.
Gutmann is praised by colleagues for his willingness to engage students in active learning. His approach to the public lecture, rooted in his classroom teaching, centers on creating a community of inquiry and the belief that collaborative learning and discovery can challenge audiences and promote change.
“He is continually revising his classroom pedagogy in innovative ways to keep and enhance student interest,” said Dr. Paula Smithka, program coordinator for the Philosophy, Religion and Law program.
“Dr. Gutmann’s concern for education, the humanities and cultivating student success is on display in his lecture,” said Dr. Brian LaPierre, director of the School of Humanities. “His reflection on the problem of encouraging close student reading and his approach of applying Confucian philosophy to our present-day challenges will make for a great presentation.”
Learn more about Dr. Gutmann and the School of Humanities.