Teaching Award

April 26, 2019

Congratulations to graduate student Simon Lambek, awarded a ‘Superior Graduate Student Course Instructor Teaching Award’ (2018-19) this week for teaching POL 381H1 F Contemporary Political Theory last Summer.

Honoured to have received the award, Simon described the course, which he designed and developed himself, as “covering a range of normative, critical, analytic and continental theory and relating these traditions to major social and political challenges that students face today. Students were given the opportunity through assignments and discussion-based classes, to explore the contemporary social and political issues that matter most to them. It was hugely rewarding to see the passion with which students engaged with these materials and assignments. Their insights brought nuance and personal experience to bear on important theoretical works and enriched everyone’s learning in the course.”

He gave further credit to his students saying: “The most enjoyable parts of the course were class discussions and reading student essays. Reading compelling papers that used course material to engage topics such as systemic racism, sexual harassment and alienating and precarious labour were particularly gratifying. Class discussions on critical race theory, feminist political theory, comparative political theory, post-Marxist thought, the politics of recognition, anti-colonial theory, hermeneutic philosophy and democratic theory frequently continued past lectures to extended office hours. For this deeply rewarding experience, I thank my students.”

The Superior Teaching Award was created in 2015 through the generous support of Arts & Science alumnus Charles M. Campbell (BA 1967, JD 1971). The award recognizes excellence in undergraduate education in classroom instruction, innovative teaching methods and student engagement.

A full list of the U of T teaching Awards is available here.

Photo: Simon Lambek, Centre, Back Row.