The Department of History Teaching Award for Teaching Fellow or Teaching Assistant

Nature of Award

The awards are intended to favour instructors who both inform and inspire their students through a combination of their classroom teaching, their assignment of readings, their methods of evaluation, and their individual or group interaction.

Nomination Criteria

While nominations will be made for a particular course or courses in the current academic year, all things being equal, preference will be given to Faculty who have undertaken the broadest range of teaching responsibilities in the current and previous two academic years.

Eligibility

Candidates for the Teaching Fellow or Teaching Assistant Award must have taught at least one half course or have run a regularly scheduled tutorial on at least six occasions during the current academic year

Individuals who win an award will be ineligible for a further award during the two subsequent academic years.

Nomination Procedure

Nominations will be officially solicited by the Department through departmental email lists, listserves, the DSC and the GHSA, immediately following the submission of final marks for courses at the end of each teaching term.

Nominations may be received from individual students, groups of students, or faculty members. The nominator must have direct personal experience of the nominated individual's teaching in the course or courses for which the nomination is being made.

A minimum of five nominators will normally be required for the nomination to proceed to the committee stage.

Nominations shall be made in writing by email or in hard copy to the Departmental Office. Anonymous nominations will not be accepted. Group nominations should normally be signed by as many members of the group as possible.

Nomination letters should be concise and to-the-point, preferably no more than one page in length. They should be confined to establishing the nominator's relevant experience of the nominee and the grounds for the nomination.

Selection Process

A selection committee will be established each year consisting of the Department Chair, Undergraduate Chair, Graduate Chair and two representatives each from the DSC and the GHSA. Normal rules of conflict of interest and confidentiality will apply. Should a Faculty member of the committee be nominated for an award, a replacement will be appointed by the Chair. Students who have been taught or supervised by any nominee in the current academic year will not be allowed to sit on the committee. Replacement representatives will be selected by the DSC or GHSA as appropriate. The Chair will vote only to break a tie.

Nominees will be informed of their nomination and asked to submit a dossier of relevant materials within four weeks. Nominees will be free to include whatever material they feel may be relevant to the committee's consideration of their teaching in relation to this particular nomination and the criteria and eligibility requirements of these awards.

The committee will decide the awards based solely on the letters of nomination received and the dossier submitted by each nominee. The personal opinions or experiences of committee members and material that does not form part of the dossier or letters of nomination may not be considered in determining the awards.

Decisions will be made at the beginning of the Fall term.

Presentation of Award

Awards will be presented at some suitable departmental function as soon as conveniently possible after they have been made.

The names of winners will be forward to the CTL for publication and recognition via official University channels; will be circulated widely to the Department by email, and publication on the Website and in the Newsletter.

Winners will be presented with a certificate (potentially a plaque if any money can be found) and their names permanently recorded in some suitable way, perhaps in the lounge.

Past Winners

      2011 - 2012 Scott de Groot
      2010 - 2011 Trina Zeimbekis
      2009 - 2010 Sarah Waurechen
      2008 - 2009 Robert Dennis