Nassos Papalexandrou, an art history professor with a focus on Greek art and archaeology and Near Eastern art, received the 2024–25 President’s Associates Undergraduate Teaching Award to recognize his excellence in teaching UT Austin undergraduates in the core curriculum.
Each year, the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Awards recognize UT Austin’s educational innovators whose commitment and performance not only instruct, but inspire. Papalexandrou teaches the Department of Art and Art History’s largest undergraduate course, ARH 302: Survey of Art from Paleolithic to Medieval Times, along with ARH 325: Art and Archeology in the Ancient Near East and the UT Signature Course UGS 302: The Parthenon Through the Ages.
“Students need to be given well-structured opportunities to engage with art history and archaeology in a way that challenges their intellectual muscles,” Papalexandrou said. “I believe this is what is owed to them in a school like The University of Texas at Austin. This, however, needs to be done in a directed way that provides students with roadmaps and methods for navigating difficult scholarly waters.”
Papalexandrou applied for and received a Course Development Award from the College of Fine Arts in 2022 to restructure his largest survey course to expand the content to include representative cultural phenomena from all continents and to move away from the encyclopedia-style textbook for the course and to replace it with engaging and thought-provoking scholarly articles that introduce students to current problems, methods and approaches to understanding and interpreting the visual and material culture around the world.
While Papalexandrou has consistently received strong scores on his course instructor surveys, his teaching scores improved even more after the course revamp.
“Dr. Papalexandrou is one of the very best teachers and instructors I have seen in action, either at UT or at my previous institution, Harvard University,” said Art History Professor David Stuart. “He brings remarkable energy to his lectures, willing students to turn and retain their attention to his presentation and points of discussion. In my last observation of his teaching, everyone was listening attentively, rapt in their attention as Papalexandrou spoke on the art of the ancient and Near East. He’s devoted to his mission as a mentor and instructor.”
Papalexandrou was also honored by The Alcalde in 2024 for his teaching when he was selected as one of the Texas 10, and in 2013, he received the Department of Art and Art History Teaching Excellence Award.