Humanities Award for Teaching Excellence
On behalf of the Faculty of Humanities Teaching Excellence Award selection committee, Dean Archibald is delighted to announce that the winner of the Faculty of Humanities Annual Award for Teaching Excellence for 2011 is Dr. Andrea MacKenzie of the Department of History.
Since she arrived at the University of Victoria in 2004, Dr. Andrea McKenzie has established a reputation as an extraordinarily talented, innovative, and popular teacher. The care with which she prepares her courses, the number of new courses that she has created, her dynamism in the classroom, and the exceptionally positive response of students to the interest she invariably takes in their education are all amply demonstrated in course materials, student course evaluations and individual testimonials, and peer reviews.
Dr. McKenzie is very much a scholar in the humanist tradition. She is keen to encourage development of the skills of critical thinking that are applicable to all walks of life, is eager to foster a deeper understanding of what citizenship constitutes, and is passionately committed to promoting learning as an end in itself.
Her courses are broadly conceived and cover a wide sweep of cultural, social, political, and legal history. Her courses draw upon her particular expertise in research and publication and also address the broader issues involved in her field (British history) generally. Finding a balance between one’s specialisation as a scholar and the broader needs or interests of the student body is a hallmark of a conscientious professor and Dr. McKenzie excels in this regard.
Student engagement with, and appreciation of, her courses is apparent in the many superlatives employed in their comments. Among the main subjects of praise are, of course, her enthusiasm, sense of humour, use of a variety of media and primary sources, effective employment of Power Point, and the lecture outlines she provides to all students prior to a class.
Recognition of how extraordinarily skilful Dr McKenzie is in the classroom is the common theme of the peer reviews. Each notes how carefully she prepares for and structures her classes. Collectively they draw attention to her extraordinary rapport with the students, how effectively she uses visual aids to demonstrate her points, her ability to use anecdotes to clarify general points, the effectiveness with which she situates text in context (including broad theoretical and historiographical context), and the intensity of student engagement with the materials and arguments presented. If the test of an educator is not just to enable students to learn, but also to inspire desire for further learning, then Dr. McKenzie is very much a model professor.
Dr. Andrea MacKenzie, Department of History
Previous Recipients
| 2010 | Timothy Iles |
| 2009 | Lisa Surridge |
| 2008 | Annalee Lepp |
| 2007 | Greg Rowe |
| 2006 | Brian Dippie |
| 2005 | Joseph Kess |
| 2004 | Eva Czaykowska-Higgins |
| 2003 | Judith Mitchell |
| 2002 | Jan Zwicky |
| 2001 | Greg Blue |
| 2000 | Thomas Hess |