Faculty, Lecturer, and Instructional Professor Awards
Each year the Division awards two teaching prizes at the annual June Convocation. Department chairs are notified of the competition for each in the winter and spring quarter, but additional details are below.
Chairs will be notified of the competition for the Award at the beginning of Winter Quarter. Nominations, contained in a letter from the chair, will be submitted to the office of the Dean of the Humanities by March 2026. Each chair may submit one nomination.
Chairs will nominate faculty who have had a significant impact on undergraduate education. They will base their nominations on faculty members’ substantial records of teaching and mentoring. Faculty to be considered will be those who have taught in the academic year in which they are nominated, but Chairs’ nominations may be based on excellence in teaching over a longer period of time. Student evaluations, B.A. theses advised, etc., may be consulted but will not be submitted with the case.
The Award will be presented at the Division’s annual hooding ceremony, and the name of the winner will be printed in the Convocation Program (along with the names of all other University award winners). The winner will choose to receive either a taxable prize of $10,000 or a non-taxable research account of $10,000.
Candidates for the Award must be current members of the ladder faculty at the University of Chicago who hold primary appointments in a department in the Humanities Division.
A candidate may not have received the Award within the last ten years.
The Sze Award has been awarded since 2018. The following colleagues have received the honor:
2025: Benjamin Saltzman (English)
2024: Martha Feldman (Music)
2023: Ellen MacKay (English Language and Literature)
2022: Maud Ellmann (English Language and Literature)
2021: Kaneesha Parsard (English Language and Literature)
2020: Jason Riggle (Linguistics)
2019: Agnes Callard (Philosophy)
2018: Maria Anna Mariani (Romance Languages and Literatures)
Chairs will be notified of the competition for the Award at the beginning of Spring Quarter. Nominations will be submitted to the office of the Dean of the Humanities by March 2026.
Nominations for this award take the form of a letter from the chair or director of the unit, and should establish that the lecturer or instructional professor is outstanding in the fulfillment of her or his duties as well as assess the lecturer’s or instructional professor's contributions to the mission of the University. The letter should be accompanied by a dossier that includes supporting materials, which may be taken from the lecturer’s or instructional professor's most recent review: a current cv, a report of a class visitation by a faculty member, student evaluations from more than one class, and any other materials helpful for assessing the nomination. Awards will be announced before Convocation in June and winners will be honored at the Humanities Ceremony at Convocation. The winner will receive a taxable prize of $3,000.
This award is open to full-time Instructional Professors, Senior Instructional Professors, and Professors of the Practice of all ranks (as well as Senior Lecturers) in the Humanities Division and Humanities Collegiate Division who have taught at the university for more than one year. Previous Mueller award recipients are not eligible.
The Mueller Award has been given out since 2014. The following colleagues have received the honor:
2025: Gerdine Ulysse (Romance Languages and Literatures) and Vu Tran (English/Creative Writing)
2024: Leslie Buxbaum (Theater and Performance Studies)
2023: David Reinhart (Linguistics) and Juliano Saccomani (Romance Languages and Literatures)
2022: Alba Girons Masot (Romance Languages and Literatures) and Jonah Radding (Classics)
2021: Christine Wilkie Bohlman (Music) and Veronica Vegna (Romance Languages and Literatures)
2020: Olga Sanchez Kisielewska (Music)
2019: Irena Cajkova (Romance Languages and Literatures)
2018: Jieun Kim (East Asian Languages and Civilizations)
2017: Benjamin Callard (Philosophy)
2016: Harumi Lory (EALC), Barbara Schubert (Music)
2015: Ana Maria Lima (Romance Languages and Literatures); Dan Raeburn (Creative Writing)
2014: Saeed Ghahremani (Near Eastern Languages and Literatures), Scott Wolniak (Department of Visual Arts)