Dean's Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence
The Dean’s Graduate Student Teaching Award recognizes each year a graduate student who has demonstrated exemplary teaching. The award is intended to foster a culture of teaching excellence among graduate teaching assistants and instructors.
Each department may nominate one student for the award. Dossiers must be submitted to the Dean of Students Office at ahd-dos@uchicago.edu no later than TBD (will update for 2027).
All current doctoral students whose department home is in AHD and have demonstrated substantial effectiveness in teaching prior to Winter 2027 are eligible for nomination. Students who have been nominated previously can be nominated again; however past award recipients will be ineligible for nomination.
The 2027 awardee will receive a cash award of $1500, a certificate, and will be recognized at the Arts & Humanities Division Spring Convocation on TBD in Rockefeller Chapel.
Examples of teaching excellence recognized by the Graduate Student Teaching Award can include, but are not limited to:
- Outstanding teaching in the classroom
- Creation or use of new and innovative teaching methods and course materials
- Effectiveness in grading/feedback, review sessions or one-on-one instruction
- Creation of challenging and innovative courses
Complete nomination packets should be e-mailed as a pdf attachment to ahd-dos@uchicago.edu Nominations may be submitted by the student’s faculty advisor and should describe the qualities and activities of the nominee that make him or her an excellent candidate for the award.
Nomination packages must include:
- A one-page letter from the nominee’s faculty advisor summarizing the individual's teaching accomplishments.
- Two one-page letters of recommendation from faculty, lecturers, current and former students taught, or other colleagues who have substantive knowledge of the nominee's teaching.
- Current CV
- Teaching portfolio or other supporting documentation, if available. A teaching portfolio provides evidence of your effectiveness as an instructor.
- It may contain a teaching statement, a teaching biography (i.e. list of courses taught, with descriptions), sample syllabi, sample assignments, course evaluations and feedback, and a list of completed pedagogical trainings. More than a loose compilation of documents, the teaching portfolio is an argument about your teaching, supported by compelling evidence. For more information, please see the following: https://grad.uchicago.edu/career-development/career-development-resources/job-resources/?tab-section=academia
Letters of recommendation could address, among other things, the following:
- How accessible and supportive was the nominee?
- How well organized were the individual class sessions of the nominee?
- What types of learning activities and teaching strategies did the nominee use effectively?
- Did the nominee create a learning atmosphere in which all students feel respected?
- Did the nominee create outstanding teaching materials, e.g., a paper or project assignment, solution sets for homework, supplementary handouts, or samples of the nominee's feedback on student work?
- Did the nominee contribute to the teaching development of others, for example, contributions to regular TA meetings, TA training, and/or helpful feedback on teaching to peers?
The committee for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence will review all nominations. The committee includes the Master of the Arts & Humanities Collegiate Division, the Deputy Dean(s) of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, and the Dean of Students of the Division of the Arts & Humanities.
2026 - Nat Modlin (CMS/GRMN)
2026 - Kashaf Qureshi (ENGL)
2025 - Ryan Brown (RLL)
2025 - Jenny Harris (ARTH)
2024 - Heather Glenny (ENGL)
2024 - Benjamin Diego (ARTH)
2023 - Laura Colaneri (RLL)
2022 - Sarah-Gray Lesley (ENGL)
2022 - Yael Flusser (CMPLT)
2021 - Zsofia Valyi-Nagy (ARTH)
2021 - Rebeca Velasquez (ENGL)
2020 – Zoe Hughes (ENGL)