Head of the Class

Sociology lecturer Nathan Palmer was preparing to teach a room of more than 150 students in early April when the chair of his department cancelled the class so he could attend Georgia Southern University’s Annual Honors Day Convocation.

“I thought I was in trouble and had no idea why she wanted me to attend,” said Palmer, who was stunned when he was called to the stage and named the 2014 Professor of the Year, one of the University’s most prestigious awards for undergraduate teaching. “No one was more shocked than me because I am not supposed to be here.”

Palmer, born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, says no one ever expected him to even go to college, let alone become a professor. He was a special education student who struggled with reading throughout his childhood. Palmer thanks numerous mentors for his success, including Judith Longfield and the Center for Teaching and Learning for helping him develop his pedagogical skills. His specialty is sociology but Palmer acknowledges teaching sociology is his true passion.

“The one thing that I can never get enough of is connecting with an audience and connecting with students individually, and being able to see them the way that I wanted teachers to see me,” said Palmer.

On the day he was honored, the educator praised his students and noted a teacher can only be a catalyst for learning. Entering his fifth year at Georgia Southern, Palmer says, “My students have always been open to learning about the complex, controversial and emotionally charged aspects of the social world. They are the ones eager to use the scientific method to learn about the social forces that guide their lives. They are willing to meet me halfway and learn with me.”

Palmer is a prolific scholar in his field. In addition to completing work on his doctoral degree from the University of Nebraska, Palmer maintains two websites filled with sociology resources for teachers, and a third dedicated to helping students.

“The first one I started was called sociologysource.org and on that site about every other week I show an exercise I used in class or provide information to give teachers an idea of things they might want to think about,” he said. “I might highlight a book or point teachers to other people who have an idea they may want to consider.”

Palmer says there are tons of journals and print resources about teaching sociology for teachers but not as much online. “For instance, 16 hours after the Trayvon Martin verdict came in we had a piece about that. We wanted to have it ready for our teachers on Sunday so when they walked into the classroom on Monday they had something to discuss, and those are things you can’t just do in the print medium.”

The innovative educator’s website, sociologyinfocus.com is for a student audience and the site sociologysounds.com is a database of songs faculty can use to highlight a social issue. “For instance, John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’ is a song that is really talking about class and authority… on that site teachers can find a list of songs that other teachers have suggested and even find a YouTube clip and a link to the lyrics,” Palmer said. “Everything I do is free because I want to help teachers have an amazing class.”

Longfield, the educator he considers his mentor at Georgia Southern, says Palmer’s ability to engage students in large lectures is truly impressive. “I have had the opportunity to observe him teach on a number of occasions,” she said. “Unlike many classes in large lecture halls I observe, there was very little texting, sleeping or off-task talking. By speaking the students’ language and engaging them with interesting stories and video clips, he has no problem introducing them to important sociological concepts and even challenge them to think about their own behaviors vis-à-vis these concepts. Nathan makes learning sociology fun by bringing esoteric theories to life through real world connections, appealing to millennials, while also challenging students to think critically about how these theories apply to their lives.” – Sandra Bennett