Daniel Castro, a professor of history at Southwestern, has been selected to receive the 2010-2011 Exemplary Teaching Award from the Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. Each year the Board allows the university to designate one teacher to receive this award, which includes a $500 cash prize.

Criteria for receiving the award include excellence in teaching; civility and concern for students and colleagues; commitment to value-centered education; and service to students, the institution and the community.

Castro has been a member of the Southwestern faculty since 1996.  He teaches courses on Latin American history and is one of Southwestern’s Paideia professors. He also has taught First-Year Seminars on several different topics.

Castro was instrumental in creating Southwestern’s Latin American Studies Program and currently serves as chair of that program. His research focuses on revolutionary movements in Latin America.

Castro is particularly proud of his participation in Southwestern’s Computers for the Children in Honduras project, which sends refurbished computers to Honduras for use in schools.

“Dr. Castro has set a high bar for all of us as a teacher-scholar,” said Provost Jim Hunt. “He is deeply committed to our students and the work of the university, and exemplifies all the qualities we value in our faculty at Southwestern.”

A native of Peru, Castro earned a B.A. in history from Loyola University. He earned an M.A. in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. in Latin American history from Tulane University.

Castro received Southwestern University’s Teaching Award in 2004.