Teaching is central to our department, and our faculty features enthusiastic, inspiring, and award-winning instructors. Here you'll find teaching-related information about some of our faculty. Visit the "Considering uWaterloo English?" undergraduate or graduate pages to see what our students have to say about their programs, the Faculty Profiles page for a complete listing of faculty, and the English Course List for information on our offerings.
For further information about our undergraduate programs, contact Heather Smyth, the English Undergraduate Chair, or Jenny Conroy, the English Undergraduate Coordinator. For more information on our graduate programs, contact Jennifer Clary-Lemon, the English Graduate Chair, or Agata Jagielska, the Graduate Coordinator.
Recent Teaching Awards
UWaterloo English faculty regularly win awards for their teaching. Here are some of the most recent awards. For a full listing of teaching awards and of other awards won by UWaterloo English faculty and students, see the Award posts in our Department's blog, Words in Place.
George Lamont, 2022-2023 Sandford Fleming Foundation (SFF) Teaching Award and Faculty of Arts Teaching Fellow
Dr. Lamont was selected as one of the recipients of the Faculty of Engineering’s 2022-2023 Sandford Fleming Foundation (SFF) Teaching Excellence Award, and in 2022 was appointed a Faculty of Arts Teaching Fellow, with the faculty noting: “Lamont is highly regarded for his teaching and holds numerous awards, including the 2020 Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching.” He also won the 2021 President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Carter Neal, 2023 Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching
Dr. Neal was the recipient of a 2023 Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching. The committee writes that his “teaching demonstrates a strong commitment to experiential learning and concrete learning experiences that centre ethical concerns while developing communication and writing skills. He creates fictional co-op employers and tasks students with learning the communication skills and practices that the employer requires. For three years, his students have worked for “AccessTech,” a start-up developing digital technologies to address disabilities and impairments. In addition to his creative work in the classroom, Dr. Neal demonstrates a deep commitment to rethinking pedagogical practice and curricula from an antiracist lens.”
Maša Torbica, 2023 Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching
Dr. Torbica won the 2023 Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching while she was still a PhD Candidate in the English department. She has also won the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student (2020) and an Independent Graduate Instructor Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Department of English Language and Literature (2022). The Arts Award committee wrote, “Maša exemplifies the best qualities of teaching in Arts… Her transdisciplinary pedagogy, commitment to authentic learning, exceptional mentoring abilities, inclusive classroom practices, and supportive administration of peer tutors, have made her a strong contributor to teaching in Arts and across the University in her many roles within the Writing and Communication Centre and the Department of English."
Megan Selinger, 2022 Excellence in Teaching award
Dr. Selinger won a 2022 Excellence in Teaching award. The committee wrote, “Dr. Selinger has established a stellar reputation as a highly regarded instructor and mentor to other communication course instructors in the Communication in the Sciences and in the Engineering Profession program.... Dr. Selinger is an exceptional instructor: kind, generous, focused, and always looking for ways to do even better...her gifts, along with her commitment to teaching and collegiality, have made her a sought-after guide on communication course delivery and pedagogy.”
Veronica Austen, 2020 WUSA Teaching Award
Dr. Austen won the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association's 2020 Teaching Award, which celebrates professors who have displayed quality teaching, shown commitment to student success, and looked beyond the classroom. The WUSA Teaching Award is the only award presented by the University of Waterloo Senate selected entirely by undergraduate students.
Frankie Condon, 2020 Excellence in Teaching Award
Dr. Condon received the Faculty of Arts's 2020 Excellence in Teaching Award. The judges wrote, “Frankie teaches out of her own commitments to antiracism and social justice. Her compassion for students, her understanding of the events that befall them, and her implicit belief that they can succeed helps them cope when circumstances threaten to overwhelm. She is one of the department’s most sought-after supervisors and instructors.” She has also received a Federation of Students Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2017 and an Outstanding Performance Award for excellence in teaching and research from the University of Waterloo in 2015.
Bruce Dadey, 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award
Dr. Dadey won a 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition to teaching courses in professional communication, visual rhetoric, and information design, Dr. Dadey is the English department's teaching assistant coordinator, responsible for training, supervising, and supporting the department's TAs.
Randy Harris, University of Waterloo Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision, 2019
Dr. Harris won a UWaterloo Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision. One of the many people who wrote in support of Dr. Harris's award stated, “Professor Harris is the rare supervisor who is brilliant, but able to let the student develop their own ideas. He is able to point to the possible path but lets the student blaze it on their own. I have tried to model my own supervisory skills on Prof. Harris’s methodology.”
Selected Faculty Teaching Statements
Ken Graham
“I regard literature as a conversation we can join, and I encourage students to see the classroom as an extension of that conversation.”
Heather Smyth
“I ask my students to think about who they are, why they are learning this, and what it means that they're learning it here.”
Aimée Morrison
“My classes focus on helping students frame and defend their ideas about media culture, by debating and using evidence.”
Randy Harris
“Learning is directional play, with lots of involvement and lots of exploration; teaching supplies the direction.”
Vinh Nguyen
"Through the analysis of literature, I help students make sense of social, political, cultural, and historical processes."
