Faculty Mentorship and Teaching Awards

Nominations for the 2013 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring

Deadline: April 1, 2013

The University of Chicago annually recognizes and honors tenure-track faculty in the Biological Sciences, Divinity School, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences for sustained exemplary graduate student teaching and mentoring.

The Call for nominations is now posted online at http://grad-education.uchicago.edu/2013facultyaward.pdf

Past Awards

2012 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring Award

Click here to read interviews with the 2012 recipients

The Future Faculty Mentorship Award*

Through 2007, The Center for Teaching and Learning awarded the Future Faculty Membership Awards.

Recipients:

  • Judith Farquhar, Anthropology, 2007
  • Howard Nusbaum, Psychology, 2007
  • Saskia Sassen, Sociology, 2007
  • Martha Ward, Art History, 2007
  • Dain Borges, Department of History, 2006
  • Matthew Brady, Department of Medicine, 2006
  • Emilio Kouri, Department of History, 2006
  • Scott Lidgard, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, 2006
  • Mark T. Lycett, Department of Anthropology,2006
  • Paul Seidel, Department of Mathematics, 2006
  • Chyung-Ru Wang, Department of Pathology, 2006
  • Dingxin Zhao, Department of Sociology, 2006

The Future Faculty Mentorship Award recognizes the contributions departmental faculty make—teaching, and advising on the dissertation—toward preparing graduate students for academic careers. In particular, this award allows graduate students to acknowledge their mentor’s assistance and inspirational leadership in preparing them for the full range of professional responsibilities.

Nominations come from graduate students in the form of a letter describing the mentoring activities performed on behalf of graduate students in a given department or committee.

The following list of activities characterizes the behavior of the Mentors we honor. While other activities may be considered relevant to this award, we hope this list will help graduate students assess the candidacy of faculty for this award. In other words, this list is meant to help students consider the candidacy of a faculty mentor.*

Teaching:

Instructorships

  • Help in finding and preparing for adjunct positions inside and outside the University

  • Advice and feedback on syllabuses and other classroom documents

TA Development

  • Encouraging students to develop a philosophy of teaching

  • Responsiveness as problems arise

  • Help prior to and following class

  • Clear guidance on grading tasks

  • Involving TAs in initial course planning and assignment design

Research:

  • Proactive interest in and advice on the dissertation, publishing, conference presentations, grants, and networking

  • Timely feedback on preparations for performance in all of the above areas.

  • Help finding funding and other resources for research, hosting conferences, etc.

Professional Development and Service:

  • Orientation to and guidance on standards and concerns within the discipline

  • Education on the ethics of practice in all areas

  • Orientation to and support for contributions to lay and extra-departmental activities

  • Help with job market preparation including job talks, mock interviews, and documents for the dossier and teaching portfolio

  • This list was compiled with the help of advanced graduate students who serve as Teaching Consultants at the Center for Teaching and Learning.

*Please note that we are not currently offering this award. We encourage graduate students wishing to nominate a faculty member to submit a nomination to The Faculty Award in Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring You may email Beth Niestat at niestat [at] uchicago.edu