Babchuk receives distinguished scholar award

17 Apr 2020     By Matt Sernett

Wayne Babchuk, associate professor of practice in the Department of Educational Psychology at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has received the 2020 McGraw Hill Distinguished Scholar Award from the Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference (EQRC).

The award recognizes outstanding scholarship among EQRC participants and encourages able scholars to continue participating in the conference. Babchuk and the two other 2020 recipients were selected by a committee of previous McGraw Hill Award recipients.

Babchuk sees the award as one small way of honoring his father, Nicholas Babchuk, who was a scholar and mentor in the university’s Department of Sociology for 40 years.

“I am really doing my best to follow in his footsteps and make some kind of a meaningful contribution to student success and to the research literature in my career,” he said.

According to Michael Firman, EQRC Director, Babchuk was specifically selected based on quality of peer-reviewed publications, papers presented at national research conferences and scholarly contributions made in academe.

Babchuk’s work at Nebraska specializes on the history, epistemology, application and instruction of qualitative and mixed methods research across disciplines. He is also engaged in several other research tracks such as the evaluation and assessment of teaching among faculty in post-secondary institutions, and Kalahari San land use and resource rights in Sub-Saharan Africa.

EQRC is an annual national conference where scholars can present their research to the academic community. It is the oldest qualitative research conference in the U.S., and is sponsored and hosted by the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. 

Babchuk also serves as managing editor of the Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research, the parent organization of EQRC, treasurer of the Kalahari Peoples Fund of sub-Saharan Africa, and is an executive board member of the Central States Anthropological Society. While at the university he has won seven teaching awards, was selected to serve as an inaugural member of the College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Academy, was a recipient of the Outstanding Contributions to the Status of People of Color Award in 2000, and the Chancellor’s Award for Best Academic and Entertainment Program in 2003.

Babchuk earned his doctoral degree in community and human resources, and master’s degrees in adult and continuing education and in anthropology at Nebraska.