STARKVILLE — A Mississippi State professor of history is the university’s 2022 Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher of the Year for bringing insights of the humanities to public audiences, and she gave a special campus lecture earlier this month.

Judith A. “Judy” Ridner will receive her award from the Mississippi Humanities Council at their annual ceremony in Jackson on March 25, when approximately 30 awards will be given to individuals throughout the state.

Ridner’s tribute includes a $400 honorarium and invitation to deliver the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Lecture, which was held March 2 in the John Grisham Room at MSU’s Mitchell Memorial Library.

Ridner’s presentation “Living in the Material Worlds of Early America” highlighted how consumer choices — particularly regarding what to wear — influenced the evolution of racial, ethnic and class identities in pre-1820 America in ways that offer lessons about the present day.

Alan I. Marcus, professor and head of MSU’s history department, praised Ridner’s selection, pointing to her varied methods for highlighting humanities.

Ridner, a historian of early America with interests in the American Frontier, ethnicity and immigration, and oral and public history, said she is “honored and humbled” to receive the award.

“For me, it represents a capstone to a 28-year career spent at three academic institutions. It’s also an important validation of my humanities-based teaching — from my published writings, to the oral and public history projects I’ve collaborated on with others, and the many wonderful students I’ve taught in university and college classrooms here at MSU and elsewhere.”

An MSU faculty member since 2011, she earned her Ph.D. and master’s degree in history from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and her bachelor’s degree in history and international studies from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

Nursing programs recognized

NursingProcess.org recently recognized Mississippi University for Women for having three of the state’s best nursing programs.

The W’s Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), BSN and Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) programs all were ranked No. 1 in the state of Mississippi for 2022.

NursingProcess.org gathered a list of all nursing schools offering RN to BSN programs in every state and then ranked the best based equally on: academic quality, affordability, reputation of the school and NursingProcess.org editorial staff ratings.

In ranking the BSN and ADN programs, NursingProcess.org analyzed the average NCLEX-RN first-time pass rates of recent five years (40 percent), academic quality (enrollment rate, graduation rate and retention rate, 30 percent) and NursingProcess.org editorial staff and nursing school reputation (30 percent).