The School of Journalism, Writing, and Media (JWAM) is proud to announce that Dr. Laurie McNeill and Dr. Jennifer Gagnon are two of the 2020-21 recipients of the distinguished Killam Teaching Prize, in recognition of their outstanding teaching, research and service to the community.
The Killam Teaching Prize is awarded annually to faculty nominated by students, colleagues and alumni in recognition of excellence in teaching.
Amongst the two dozen recipients, two JWAM faculty members have been awarded this prestigious prize this year.
Dr. Laurie McNeill, who was appointed as the acting director of the School in December 2020 is also the director of Arts First-Year & Interdisciplinary Programs and a professor of teaching at the department of English Language and Literatures.
“I am deeply honoured to be recognized with a Killam Teaching Prize. Working with students in and beyond the classroom has and continues to be incredibly rewarding and generative: I am always learning with and from my students!” McNeill said.
McNeill is leading a three-year project supported by UBC’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund to develop new curriculum and pedagogical supports about academic integrity in first-year writing courses.
“My collaborations with colleagues, including teaching assistants, about teaching and learning have been similarly transformative. It means so much to me to have the support of students and colleagues in this nomination,” she said.
Her current projects examine the intersection of the digital and the archival in how individuals and communities make meaning of themselves and others on social media.
Awarded alongside McNeill is sessional instructor Dr. Jennifer Gagnon. Gagnon is a sessional instructor at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, Political Science and Vantage College at UBC.
“I am honoured to receive this award. It is incredibly validating of the teaching and service work that I have been doing as a sessional lecturer. It is a rare gift as an educator to have students share the impact that we make on their learning and lives,” Gagnon said.
Gagnon’s work is interdisciplinary and embraces a broad range of topics in political theory, classics, disability studies, international relations theory, qualitative methods, feminism, and gender.
“In these difficult and uncertain times, I take strength and resiliency from this award—what we do every day as educators and colleagues matters, and a more inclusive and accessible future is possible,” she said.
Her main area of research is in the intersections between ancient political thought and disability studies, especially as concerns gender, inclusion and exclusion, violence, and visible and invisible disabilities.
“I hope that this brings more visibility to the remarkable and innovative teaching that both disabled folks and contract faculty are doing at UBC,” she said.
All recipients of this award will be recognized during the graduation ceremonies which are scheduled to take place virtually on June 2, 2021 and June 3, 2021.
