John Briggs, director of UC Riverside’s Undergraduate University Education Program, has retired.
Briggs, who stepped down earlier this year, joined UC Riverside’s English Department faculty in 1980 and taught more than 20 different courses during his time on campus, according to a statement on the university’s website.
In 1996, Briggs won the Academic Senate Award for Distinguished Teaching, and he held the McSweeney Family Chair in Rhetoric and Teaching Excellence from 2012 to 2022. He received the Thomas J. Wilson Award from Harvard University Press for his book Francis Bacon and the Rhetoric of Nature, and his book Lincoln’s Speeches Reconsidered was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Richard Cardullo, professor of ecology, evolution, and biology, called Briggs “a transformative figure” on the UC Riverside campus.
“Our undergraduates are better off because of his commitment to writing excellence,” Cardullo said in the statement.