Teaching Excellence Awards 2021-22

The Social Sciences Division today announces the divisional Teaching Excellence Awards. The awards recognise an exceptional contribution to education by colleagues at any career-stage.

Celebrating the high quality of teaching in the Social Sciences Division is incredibly important. One of the ways the Division does this is through a teaching excellence recognition scheme each year. The scheme formally recognises the outstanding contribution to teaching and learning and the academic development of students shown by colleagues across the Division. It has two strands: (i) unfunded Teaching Excellence Awards; (ii) funded Teaching Development and Enhancement Project Awards (jointly announced today).

Whilst announcing the awardees, we also want to acknowledge the tremendous amount of work achieved by many people over the past year. We thank everyone involved for their dedication and continued effort.

Professor Timothy Power, Head of the Social Sciences Division, said of the awards: "I am delighted to see such inspiring work from colleagues across the Division. Many congratulations to everyone who has received an award this year for their impressive contributions to teaching and learning."

2021-22 Teaching Excellence Award winners

Early Career Award

Mathis Ebbinghaus (Department of Sociology)

“I am thankful and honoured for receiving a Teaching Excellence Award of the Social Sciences Division. I owe this recognition to my students whose enthusiasm for the social sciences in theory and practical research is a constant reminder that teaching and research can mutually inform each other.”

Dr Mark Fransham (Department of Social Policy and Intervention)

‘I am delighted to receive a Teaching Excellence Award in the early career strand for my work teaching quantitative methods on the MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation, and am very grateful to my colleagues and our students for supporting my nomination. I feel very fortunate to teach such an interesting, committed body of students and I am very excited to see what they go on to do with the skills that we have taught them.’

Dr Naohiko Omata (Department of International Development)

"I am very happy to be selected for a Teaching Excellence Award. I consider this award a team achievement of the ‘Refugee Economies Programme’ - the research based at the Refugee Studies Centre in the Department of International Development and the Refugee-Led Research Hub (RLRH) – a research hub based in Nairobi that provides support to scholars from displaced communities to be leaders in knowledge production in the field of Forced Migration Studies. In particular, I would like to say many thanks to the refugee fellows and researchers of the RLRH who made crucial contributions to the teaching of my course."

Dr Andreas Televantos (Faculty of Law)

“It’s an honour to have been given a Teaching Excellence Award. Oxford really is a great place, and it’s a privilege to teach such bright students alongside such brilliant colleagues”.

Individual Award

Dr Michael Gill (Saïd Business School)

“Thank you for this teaching award. It is an honour to teach in the University of Oxford. Brilliant students, the tutorial system for management undergraduates, and lectures and workshops for MBAs, provide a unique set of learning opportunities for students and tutors alike. Both my college (St Edmund Hall) and department (Saïd Business School) have been supportive of my teaching and allowed me to engage with new topics including mental health in the workplace. I am also grateful to the many people who enable this teaching, often behind the scenes."

Dr Scott Hale (Oxford Internet Institute)

"I am surprised, honoured, and humbled to receive a Teaching Excellence Award. I enjoy working with our fantastic students: they always bring new perspectives about the fast-changing area of the social consequences of new technology.

Dr William Kelly (School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography)

"I am thrilled to have been recognised for my contributions to the development and delivery of digital methods training for advanced research students in Anthropology and the Social Sciences. It has been a collective endeavour and I am grateful to colleagues, collaborators and students for their input and inspiration in exploring ways of continuing to engage in research during what has been a difficult and challenging time."

Dr Clare Leaver (Blavatnik School of Government)

"Teaching is central to the Blavatnik School’s mission to improve government and policymaking worldwide. I have tried to play my part by designing impactful Economics courses for our diverse cohorts of MPP students and online learners. It is terrific to see this recognised with a Divisional Teaching Excellence Award."

Dr Amber Murrey (School of Geography and the Environment)

"I am equally delighted and humbled to receive a Teaching Excellence Award. Pedagogical work is always collective work and I am so grateful to supportive colleagues who co-teach with me and my students for their eagerness to engage in learning and unlearning, particularly on topics of geographies of empire, anti-racist praxis and decolonial thought."

Dr Caroline Phillips (School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography)

"Providing a positive and nurturing environment for students to learn and develop is a priority in my teaching. I am thankful not only for receiving this Teaching Excellence Award from the Division, but that there is recognition for this vital role".

Team Award

MBA Michaelmas Term 1: 'Integration' (Saïd Business School)

Dr Chris Moos, Professor Michael Smets, Professor Matthias Holweg, Dr Steve New, Dr Michael Gill, Professor Richard Barker, Dr Anette Mikes, Dr Richard Cuthbertson, Professor Marya Besharov, Professor Sue Dopson, Professor Alastair Nicholson, Dr Agni Orfanoudaki, Dr Katya Yatskovskaya.

The team from the Said Business School MBA Michaelmas Term 1 'Integration'

Dr Chris Moos said: “We are grateful to the Social Sciences Division for recognising the work we are doing on the MBA MT1 integration. This award is testament to Saïd Business School’s spirit of collaboration across departments and faculties, from Accounting, over Organisation Studies to Operations Management. A special thank you to all our colleagues from across the School who are going the extra-mile to make the Integration possible, including Careers, Alumni Relations, Exams, the Library, Programmes, Executive Education, AV, and the Teaching and Learning Initiative. This goes to show that we are really at our best when we work together.”

Excellence in Supervision Award

Dr Velda Elliott (Department of Education)

Professor Andrea Ruggeri (Department of Politics & International Relations)

“I am truthfully honoured to receive this award, knowing also the quality of other incredible supervisors. I am aware that serving as graduate supervisor is a privilege – especially here in Oxford - because we have outstanding early career scholars. I’d like to dedicate this award to all first generation students – like me – who have to tackle on daily base their silly impostor syndrome. You are amazing, you rock.”