Beyond the Page. Cate Denial - A Pedagogy of Kindness
The Trent Teaching Commons is pleased to introduce a new event series, Beyond the Page. This conversational series explores recent scholarship in teaching and learning and invites the author to share the motivations and experiences behind their work. We invite you to read their work in advance and join us as we go beyond their written words to learn more about their teaching approaches, successes, and challenges.
Our first speaker is Cate Denial, author of A Pedagogy of Kindness (2024).
Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Time: 10-11:30am ET
Location: Online via Zoom.
Catherine (Cate) Denial, Ph.D. is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. A winner of the American Historical Association’s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, Cate has served as a member of the Educational Advisory Committee of the Digital Library of America, as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and as a Learned Scholar for the National Historic Landmarks division of the National Park Service. Cate currently sits on the board of Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life. She has held an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation fellowship from the American Philosophical Society, and she is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.
From 2001 to 2011 Cate served as the Lead Historian for Bringing History Home, a professional development program for K-12 educators funded by $3 m from the U.S. Department of Education. Cate’s new book, A Pedagogy of Kindness argues that higher education needs to get aggressively and determinedly kind. A Pedagogy of Kindness is about attending to justice, believing people, and believing in people. It’s a transformational discipline.
As creator and director of the Bright Institute at Knox College, Cate oversees a program that supports 13 faculty from liberal arts schools across the United States in their teaching and research for three years, while providing them with $10,500 in research funds and convening an annual summer seminar. From 2022 to 2023, she was PI on a $150,000 grant awarded to Knox College by the Mellon Foundation, bringing together thirty-six participants from across higher education in the United States to explore “Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care in the Academy After COVID-19.” Cate is also a pedagogical consultant who works with individuals, departments, and institutions in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, and Australia.