By Maggie Meegan | Reporter
Dr. Ronald Angelo Johnson, associate professor of history, goes beyond simply talking about the past in his classroom. He invites students to participate and discuss through the lens of common humanity.
Every year, the College of Arts and Sciences at Baylor elects 12 outstanding faculty members to be submitted to the university-wide selection committee for outstanding faculty of the 2025-2026 academic year. This year, Johnson was elected and named Outstanding Faculty for Tenured Teaching in the Humanities.
“One of the things about getting that award is that teaching Baylor students is just one of the most gratifying, affirming [things] in an academic career,” Johnson said. “I’ve just found that Baylor students who have been in my class are engaged and interested and that they are intellectually curious.”
Austin senior Allison Estes, who had Johnson for a history class her sophomore year, said his class was unlike any other she had been in before.
“I thought it was really cool how he gave us guidelines but gave us a lot of freedom on interpretation and how we went about reading our materials,” Estes said.
Estes said she appreciated that Johnson created avenues for learning about things she didn’t have any prior knowledge of.
“He brought us into looking at underrepresented or marginalized groups in periods of history, which I found really cool and important,” Estes said.
During his career at Baylor, Johnson has had many personal experiences in his classes, primarily in one of his American Civil Rights courses. Johnson said his students connected by talking about a passage in a book they read together. The discussion was about the role of family and enslavement.
“Other students began to weep; I began to weep,” Johnson said. “We just had this moment of just common humanity. That moment went on for about 10 minutes, and it wasn’t so much about being saddened by what happened 150 to 180 years ago, but in this room in Tidwell Bible Building, people from different backgrounds and different walks of life were all sharing in this emotion.”
Being recognized as an outstanding faculty member means the “absolute world” to him, Johnson said.
“Teaching is my calling,” Johnson said. “Teaching is my response to God’s call to pour life into other people.”
Johnson said other teachers have supported him throughout his life, and he hopes to emulate that in his own teaching style.
“Here is a call, and my way of responding to it is through teaching,” Johnson said. “This award, in some way, only tells me that I have reached some level of connecting with Baylor students in a way that my colleagues find valuable.”
Estes said the award was well-deserved.
“For me personally, it was just very uplifting to be in his class,” Estes said. “I think he is such an excellent teacher in how he holds his class accountable while being incredibly and unwaveringly encouraging.”
