Graduate Fellows Program
CCTL Graduate Fellows are PhD students with a demonstrated commitment to teaching and interest in how people learn. Selected from across all divisions, disciplines, and schools via a competitive application process, Fellows develop programs and resources to address the needs and concerns of graduate students serving in teaching positions (e.g., TAs, Lecturers) in their fields. Other responsibilities include helping to facilitate the annual Teaching@UChicago orientation, developing and facilitating the Fundamentals of Teaching Series, serving as Teaching Mentors for CCTE 50000: Course Design and College Teaching, and leading discussions on pedagogical topics of interest at Fellows meetings. The CCTL Graduate Fellows Program offers a unique opportunity to reflect on teaching with a community of peers and gain valuable experience in higher education administration, workshop facilitation, program development, and collaboration with colleagues from different disciplines and programs across campus.
New Fellows are appointed for one year and may apply for reappointment in subsequent years. The time commitment is expected to be 5-7 hours per week. Graduate Fellows are financially compensated for their work.
Eligibility
Students in any PhD program at the University of Chicago may apply, provided they:
- Are in good academic standing.
- Have at least two quarters of teaching experience at UChicago (e.g., TA or lecturer).
- Have completed or are currently enrolled in the CCTL's pedagogy course, CCTE 50000 Course Design and College Teaching.
- Can participate in all training sessions (tentatively scheduled for May 20 and September 4, 2024) and the Teaching@UChicago Conference (tentatively scheduled for September 27, 2024). Please note that these dates are subject to change.
Applications
The application materials include a cover letter, a summary of teaching & pedagogical development experience, a statement of teaching philosophy, verification by your Director of Graduate Studies of good academic standing, and (optional) evidence of teaching effectiveness.
Please feel free to email teaching@uchicago.edu with any questions you may have about the program or application process.
Applications for the 2024-25 Academic Year are now closed.
Current Pedagogy Fellows
Anna Berlekamp
Anna is a PhD Candidate in the department of Middle Eastern Studies (MES), specializing in Anatolian Archaeology. Her research focuses on socio-political organization, increasing territoriality, and inter- and intra-regional interaction networks during the early second millennium BCE in central Turkey. At the University of Chicago, she has served as a Writing Intern, a Teaching Assistant for NELC courses, and as the Instructor of Record for a course on the Hittite empire. As a CCTL Fellow, Anna hopes to help instructors engage and improve inclusive teaching and active learning strategies, as well as engaging with object-based learning using campus resources.
Ian Bongalonta
Ian Bongalonta is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry. He conducts research in the intersection of computational spectroscopy, machine learning, and information theory. At the University of Chicago, Ian has served as a teaching assistant for the Honors General Chemistry course sequence and a tutor for graduate statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics and was the recipient of the 2022 Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching. As a CCTL Fellow, Ian hopes to provide fellow graduate students with a solid foundation in pedagogical principles, with a focus in STEM education.
Yin Cai
Yin is a PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Her research interests encompass material culture, artisanal experience/knowledge, and the history of science and technology in early modern China. As a historian specializing in craft production, she has always been interested in how people learn and communicate their knowledge and skills. She considers both learning and teaching to be the craft that will improve through practice. At UChicago and elsewhere, Yin has taught as a course assistant, lecturer, writing tutor, and museum educator. As a CCTL fellow, she hopes to develop resources for graduate teachers in creative pedagogy and effective course design.
Heather Glenny
Heather is a PhD candidate in English. Her research focuses on the ways medical education shapes popular ideas about the body, including perceptions of race, gender, and ability. At UChicago, she received the 2024 Dean's Award for Student Teaching Excellence and has been able to learn from grad students across disciplines working as a Teaching Consultant at the CCTL. Before coming to Chicago, she taught high school English in Massachusetts and was a museum educator in DC. She holds an MA in Art & Museum Studies from Georgetown, where she focused on making collections accessible and meaningful for visitors, and has a BA in Art History with Honors in Education from Stanford, where she wrote her thesis on activating the pedagogical potential of museum storage. While a CCTL fellow, Heather is excited to continue nourishing a campus climate that celebrates creative pedagogy.
James Green
James is a PhD student in Social Work focusing on social workers’ use of social media as a practice and a space of digital care. James has graduate degrees in counseling and social work, and has been a lecturer in Counseling at California State University, LA and here in social work. They have also taught in a public high school in LA, facilitating curriculum and various workshops on trauma, mental health, and violence to students and staff. As a CCTL fellow they hope to model relational skills learned as a clinician and encourage a more relational shift to college teaching.
Omar Kazi
Omar is a PhD candidate in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME). He conducts research at Argonne National Laboratory, focused on engineering photothermal materials to harness solar energy for water treatment and resource recovery. He has served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate thermodynamics courses and received the 2023 PME Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. He has also taught engineering to K-12 students through the PME Science Communications Program and the UChicago Collegiate Scholars Program. As a CCTL fellow, Omar hopes to develop resources to help engineering instructors practice pedagogical techniques that improve students’ constructive problem-solving skills.
Matthew King
Matt is a PhD candidate in Physics, researching neutrino physics using multiple liquid argon based experiments at Fermilab. Specifically, he is looking at how to distinguish between different types of low-energy signals in these detectors to aid in calibration and detection of low-energy neutrino interactions. As a first-year graduate student at Yale, he received a Prize Teaching Fellowship for excellence in graduate teaching for an electromagnetism course. Since matriculating at UChicago, Matt has engaged in volunteer tutoring in mathematics at Wendell Phillips high school. As a CCTL fellow, he would like to work with students and faculty in the physics department to improve the learning outcomes of graduate students in their courses as well as help prepare and support other graduate teachers in their work.
Elaine Kushkowski
Elaine is a PhD Candidate in the Committee on Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cell Biology. Her scientific research focuses on identifying the embryonic origin of a unique cell type called the neural crest. She taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate biology courses and received the Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2023. Elaine redesigned the Teaching Assistant Training Course for the Biological Sciences Division. Most recently, she designed interactive workshops on lesson planning, running review sessions, and developing a meaningful teaching philosophy. As Lead Fellow, Elaine strives to mentor graduate students across the university to become more confident, effective, and reflective educators.
Alessandro Minnucci
Alessandro is a fifth-year PhD student in Italian Studies and Theater and Performance Studies. At the University of Chicago, he has taught courses in Italian (Beginning Elementary Italian III and Italian for Speakers of Romance Languages) and Performance Studies (Oral Performance and Gender: From the Middle Ages to Slam Poetry). He has also served as a TA for The Worlds of Harlequin: Commedia dell'Arte. Alessandro is particularly interested in exploring the intersections of language, performance, and critical pedagogy. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Alessandro taught at various levels in Italian public schools. He has also led workshops on performance poetry, reflecting his commitment to engaging students from diverse backgrounds in creative and interdisciplinary learning experiences.
Chiza Mwinde
Chiza is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geophysical Sciences, studying Earth's past climate through the elemental variations in ancient salt deposits. She enjoys sharing her passion for Earth science and has served as both a TA and lecturer for undergraduate courses in the Geophysical Sciences department. Alongside her lab members, she volunteers with UChicago’s Collegiate Scholars Program teaching a 6-week summer course on environmental science and data analysis for high school students. As a CCTL fellow, Chiza looks forward to collaborating with other fellows to create resources that support effective teaching and address the diverse needs of graduate student instructors at UChicago.
Ava Polzin
Ava is a PhD candidate in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, working with Profs. Andrey Kravtsov and Hsiao-Wen Chen to better understand star formation and the baryon cycle in low mass, low metallicity galaxies. In addition to doing research, Ava has served as a tutor and instructor for a number of courses across the physical sciences. Most recently, she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Yale University Department of Astronomy and a Lead Instructor for the Yale Young Global Scholars Program. As a CCTL Fellow, Ava is excited to help foster a culture of thoughtful pedagogy at UChicago.
Maggie Sandholm
Maggie is a PhD candidate in Philosophy. Her research examines what psychopathologies reveal about the nature of consciousness, perception, and subjectivity. She taught as both an instructor and as a teaching assistant for various courses in philosophy of mind and ethics, and received the Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2022. She also served as Teaching Consultant at the CCTL and enjoyed collaborating with instructors on how to develop inclusive and student-centered learning practices. As a CCTL fellow, Maggie looks forward to continuing to support, empower, and learn from other educators and is eager to create programming that adds to the insightful pedagogical discussions ongoing in the UChicago community.
Miah Turke
Miah is a PhD candidate in the Chemistry Department. For her doctoral work, she studies the interactions of Parkinson’s Disease-associated protein, alpha-synuclein, with lipid membranes with the aim of a better understanding of the protein’s function. She has 6 years of chemistry teaching experience from her undergraduate and graduate career. On the weekends Miah continues to cultivate her instructional expertise outside of academics at an introductory bird-watching group that she founded. As a CCTL fellow, Miah looks forward to talking pedagogy with her peers in different fields and helping train the next generation of teachers.
Past Graduate Fellows
Alizé Hill
Alizé Hill is a doctoral candidate at Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She received her B.A. in Human Development from Cornell University in 2018 and her M.S.W. in Social Work from The University of Chicago in 2020. Her current research interests include educational equity, the schooling experiences of marginalized youth, abolitionist social work, the experiences of multiracial families, and youth activism. Her dissertation combines these various interests in order to examine the process through which multiracial families navigate the school-prison nexus. Alizé is also a professional circus artist who combines circus and social work to engage in radical imagination in her creative performance pieces and Socioemotional learning (SEL) in her teaching of circus arts to youth across Chicago.
Anna Berlekamp
Anna is a PhD Candidate in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), specializing in Anatolian Archaeology. Her research focuses on socio-political organization, increasing territoriality, and inter- and intra-regional interaction networks during the early second millennium BCE in central Turkey. At the University of Chicago, she has served as a Writing Intern, a Teaching Assistant for NELC courses, and as the Instructor of Record for a course on the Hittite empire. As a CCTL Fellow, Anna hopes to help instructors engage and improve active learning strategies and object-based learning.
Ava Polzin
Ava is a PhD candidate in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, working with Profs. Andrey Kravtsov and Hsiao-Wen Chen to better understand star formation and the baryon cycle in low mass, low metallicity galaxies. In addition to doing research, Ava has served as a tutor and instructor for a number of courses across the physical sciences. Most recently, she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Yale University Department of Astronomy and a Lead Instructor for the Yale Young Global Scholars Program. As a CCTL Fellow, Ava is excited to help foster a culture of thoughtful pedagogy at UChicago.
Caitlin Wong Hickernell
Caitlin is a PhD candidate in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics program. She works in Dr. Allan Drummond’s lab, researching how budding yeast are able to survive and respond to heat stress. She is a recipient of the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) F31 via the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Caitlin has had extensive experience as a TA for biology courses, ranging from non-major introductory biology classes to specialized, advanced biochemistry courses. As a CCT fellow, she will consider how to effectively teach biology in a way that captures the complex beauty of nature, moving away from the field’s historical reliance on rote memorization. Caitlin is also interested in the intersection of STEM pedagogy with science communication to the public, with the hope that effective STEM instruction can have benefits beyond the immediate classroom.
Chiza Mwinde
Chiza is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geophysical Sciences. She studies Earth’s climate in the past using variations of boron and calcium ancient salt deposits. She enjoys sharing her passion for Earth science and has served as a TA and lecturer for undergraduate courses in the geophysical sciences department. Along with fellow lab members, she volunteers at UChicago’s Collegiate Scholars Program, where they conduct environmental science workshops for high school students. Chiza looks forward to collaborating with other CCTL fellows and helping instructors integrate active learning strategies and effective assessment methods in their teaching.
Darren Kusar
Darren is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, focusing on early modern Italian literature. His research interests include early modern poetry, opera, voice studies, Renaissance demonology, phenomenology, and wonder tales. In his dissertation, Image, Voice, Text: Staging the Diabolical in Early Modern Italian Opera, he examines the production and reception of visually and aurally staged diabolical characters in a culture preoccupied with spiritual threats. As an instructor, Darren has taught several Italian language courses, an advanced course on academic writing, and a self-designed course on early modern epic and opera. He has also been a CA in both the Italian and Music departments.
Elaine Kushkowski
Elaine is a PhD Candidate in the Committee on Development, Regeneration, and Stem Cell Biology studying how cell types are specified during early development in vertebrates. Her research focuses on the early position, movements, and signaling environments that drive specification of a cell type called the neural crest. She has taught a variety of undergraduate biology courses and redesigned the Biological Sciences Division Teaching Assistant Training Course. In 2023, she received the Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Teaching for her work with undergraduates in the College. As Lead Fellow, Elaine strives to mentor other Fellows and help graduate students across the university become confident, effective, and reflective educators.
Ian Bongalonta
Ian Bongalonta is a second year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry. He conducts research in large-scale quantum mechanics, reactive molecular dynamics, and their applications to biophysical systems. He has served as a teaching assistant for the Honors General Chemistry course sequence and is the recipient of the 2022 Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching. In addition to teaching undergraduate students, Ian has also designed and taught a course in waves and electromagnetism for high school students at the University of Chicago's Collegiate Scholars Program. As a CCT fellow, he hopes to systematically improve graduate teaching and student life in the physical sciences through collective resource management and nourishment of pedagogical methods.
Irma Avdic
Irma is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry. In her research, she develops computational techniques that will utilize noisy quantum computers as new-generation quantum sensors. She was a teaching assistant (TA) for the Introductory General Chemistry course sequence and received the 2022 Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award in General Chemistry. Currently, she is a Collaborative Learning in Chemistry TA. Irma also developed and implemented a quantum computing workshop for the Hyde Park Academy High School students in the fall of 2022. As a CCTL Fellow, she aims to contribute to the expansion of collaborative learning programs across different disciplines by creating a comprehensive collaborative learning TA guidebook on establishing a connection between the parent course and the collaborative learning courses.
Miah Turke
Miah is a PhD candidate in the Chemistry Department. For her doctoral work, she studies the interactions of Parkinson’s Disease-associated protein, alpha-synuclein, with lipid membranes with the aim of a better understanding of the protein’s function. She has 6 years of teaching experience, from leading discussion sessions as an undergraduate at Michigan State University to TAing for Honors General Chemistry and serving as a Senior TA for General Chemistry here at UChicago. On the weekends Miah continues to cultivate her instructional expertise outside of academics at an introductory bird-watching group that she founded. As a CCTL fellow, Miah looks forward to talking pedagogy with her peers in different fields and helping train the next generation of teachers.
Natalie Farrell
Natalie Farrell is a PhD candidate in Music History/Theory at the University of Chicago. She has been published in Music and Letters, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, and The Flutist Quarterly. Her research on neoliberalism and musicians’s unions has been funded by grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Eastman School of Music's Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research. In her free time, she likes to knit and spend time with her dog (who is named after Leonard Bernstein). As a CCT fellow, Natalie is looking forward to helping instructors cultivate trauma-informed pedagogical tools for the Humanities.
Phillip Lo
Phillip is a PhD student in Computational and Applied Mathematics. His research includes deep learning for astrophysics and biology, as well as statistical methods for microscopy. He has served as instructor of record for introductory calculus courses, as well as a summer high school enrichment course on data science. As a CCTL fellow, Phillip is interested in helping mathematics instructors incorporate 3D visualization software into their teaching.
Samantha Usman