Kathleen Coleman awarded new Faculty Prize for Excellence in General Education 

Harvard’s Program in General Education has awarded the inaugural Faculty Prize for Excellence in General Education to James Loeb Professor of Classics Kathleen Coleman for her course Gen Ed 1131: Loss. 

Established this year, the prize includes a $5,000 stipend and recognizes the lead instructor of a transformative General Education course that models exemplary pedagogical practices. All previously taught Gen Ed courses are eligible for consideration. 

The award was presented on May 7 during a reception at the Harvard Faculty Club. “Kathleen has constructed not just a fabulous course,” said Fiery Cushman, co-chair of the Standing Committee on General Education, “but one that is quintessentially Gen Ed. And she’s done it not just through unmatched pedagogical instincts, but also by tireless revision to her teaching year after year. The result is a course that changes students’ lives, inspires her colleagues, and shows the very greatest of what a Harvard education offers.” 

Gen Ed 1131 draws on literature, architecture, visual art, and music to help students understand how humans process loss and, in turn, how creative expression can provide comfort. Although the course is anchored in Greco-Roman antiquity, readings and materials range across cultures and millennia, reflecting the universal nature of its subject. Through personal projects, collaborative discussions, and field trips to Harvard Art Museums and Mount Auburn Cemetery, students explore how public and private mourning overlap. 

“Studying works of art, architecture, literature, and music that have been born out of loss gives us somewhere to turn when we are similarly blind-sided,” Coleman reflected. “Loss is so hard, and all of us gain courage from working together to face it.” 

Since the course’s development in 2019, it has undergone continual refinement that has increased enrollment, engagement, and satisfaction among students. “Take this course if you’re ready to be changed,” one student said. “Professor Coleman gives everything she has to this class, and if you give your all in return, you’ll walk away transformed.” 

For Coleman, teaching in the Program in General Education meant “the chance to engage with students from all corners of Harvard College.” She credited the Gen Ed Office, Harvard Library, and the Harvard Art Museums for supporting the course development and her experience. Seeing students “discover profundity in a poem, painting, song, or an architectural design,” she said, “is an incomparable experience for a teacher.” 

“Kathleen’s course serves as a model of intellectual growth for her students,” said Jason Ur, co-chair of the Standing Committee on General Education. “She drew on her specific area of expertise, thought hard about how it mattered in other times and places, and then generalized it in a way that made it relevant to Harvard students’ lives.”