Professor Ralph Begleiter Awarded 2009 College of Arts & Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award

Ralph Begleiter, The University's Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Rosenberg Professor of Communication, was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award. Deputy Dean George Watson, Associate Dean Suzanne Austin, and Department Chair Elizabeth Perse made a surprise visit to Professor Begleiter's COMM/POSC444 Global Agenda course to make the official announcement of the award. Formal recognition will be made at the State of the College event at the Center for the Arts on May 13.

Ralph Begleiter brings more than 30 years of broadcast journalism experience to the University of Delaware, where he teaches communication, journalism, and political science. During two decades as CNN’s “world affairs correspondent,” Begleiter was the network’s most widely-traveled reporter. He has visited some 95 countries on 6 continents. He continues to travel, with university students to Cuba, South America, Turkey and Antarctica, and conducting media workshops in several countries under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State. At CNN during the 1980’s and 1990’s, he covered U.S. diplomacy, interviewed countless world leaders, hosted a global public affairs program called “Global View,” and co-anchored CNN’s prestigious “International Hour.” In 1998, Begleiter wrote and anchored a 24-part series on the Cold War. He covered many historic events at the end of the 20th century, including virtually every high-level Soviet/Russian-American meeting; the Persian Gulf Crisis in 1990-91; the Dayton Bosnia Accords; and Middle East Peace efforts. Since leaving CNN, he has hosted the Foreign Policy Association’s annual “Great Decisions” television discussion series, aired on Public Broadcasting System stations. He has received numerous press awards including, in 1994, the Weintal Prize from Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Foreign Service, one of diplomatic reporting’s highest honors. In 2008, the Delaware Press Association named him “Communicator of Achievement,” honoring “a lifetime of achievement in the communications profession… and exemplary service to the community and to humanity as well as to the profession.”

He holds an Honors B.A. in political science from Brown University, an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, and is a member of the National Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa.

At Delaware, Begleiter teaches undergraduate courses in “Broadcast News,” “History of TV News Documentary,” “Broadcast News Documentary,” “Global Media & International Politics,” “Introduction to Journalism” and special courses such as a study abroad program in Turkey in geopolitics in 2008, in Antarctica and South America in photojournalism and geopolitics (2003, 2005) and “Road to the Presidency” during election years. He also directs the university’s “Global Agenda” public speaker program, and in 2006, his “Global Agenda” class met weekly by videoconference with students in Beirut, Lebanon to discuss cross-cultural and media issues. In 2002 he took UD students to Cuba for the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Begleiter has hosted the Foreign Policy Association public television series “Great Decisions,” broadcast on many PBS stations from 2001-2004 and again from 2006 - 2008.