University of Washington

Professor of intellectual history and former director of the Comparative History of Ideas Program (CHID), John Toews has been a leader in the College of Arts and Sciences for thirty-five years. His many scholarly contributions have been recognized by a MacArthur Fellowship, the Giovanni Costigan Endowed Professorship in History, and the Joff Hanauer Distinguished Professorship in Western Civilization. At the university, Professor Toews may be best known for his role in developing the CHID Program. For former students, however, his greatest impact has been as a mentor, rather than as a professor or program director. His ability to teach them how to think critically, his desire to give them agency both in the classroom and in their future careers, and his emphasis on public citizenship represent his most important legacy. "A degree should not be about the potential return on investment," he argues. "Students enter college to create their position in society, to build an identity. It's not an easy thing to do these days." In his recent course on the corporatization of higher education, Professor Toews notes that he learned a lot from his students' struggles to stake a claim on their own degrees while dealing with rising tuition costs and what they see as a lack of freedom to choose their own paths. Professor Toews's dedication to helping his students explore such difficult questions is legendary. Some of those students recently honored him with a humorous video, entitled "The History of John Toews." The video sums up Toews's unique qualities as a teacher perfectly: "John is gifted at nurturing and championing others intellectually, artistically, and professionally." The department is grateful to Professor Toews for lending this rare combination of talents to the university for so many years. This year, the Department of History is honoring Professor Richard Johnson, who is retiring after forty-four years at the University of Washington. A scholar of early American history, Johnson is a beloved figure on campus, and one of our department's many recipients of the prestigious UW Distinguished Teaching Award. Professor Johnson has spent his career focused on training students how to be historians. "I am interested in conveying history as a discipline, as a method of argument, not as a rote memorization of facts and dates," he says. To emphasize the importance of undergraduate education, Professor Johnson points to a drawer filled to capacity with notecards. Each card represents a student who has passed through one of his seminars, a student to whom he taught critical thinking skills with value that extends far beyond the boundaries of the discipline of history. Equally dedicated to graduate teaching, Professor Johnson is particularly proud that during his tenure as department chair in the 1990s, he created the History 570-571 course series. In these classes, UW graduate students are prepared to become teachers and mentors in their own right, and to succeed professionally in academia and beyond. In this way, Johnson's legacy will be extended to the next generation of historians. The department recently recognized Professor Johnson's dedication and service with a tree-planting ceremony behind Smith Hall. A sequoia tree now stands there, honoring his numerous contributions to the university and wider Seattle community (see back cover). Johnson's expertise and commitment will be sorely missed. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. Dr. Laurie Marhoefer, formerly an assistant professor of history at Syracuse History, will be joining the department as assistant professor of German history beginning fall quarter. She is the author of the recent monograph, Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis, published in 2015. NEW FACES Dr. Mark Metzler has accepted a joint offer from the department and the Jackson School of International Studies as professor of Japanese history, to begin work in 2017. He is currently a professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of several books, most recently Capital as Will and Imagination: Schumpeter's Guide to the Postwar Japanese Miracle (2013). Retirements 8  U N I V E R S I T Y O F W A S H I N G T O N

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