University of Exeter Students' Guild Teaching Awards 2015

Photo: Exeter Student's Guild 

This year I was shortlisted for 'Best Postgraduate Teacher' at the University of Exeter Student's Guild Teaching Awards. These Awards were the first of this kind to be established in the UK (2009) and remains the largest in the country. Over 1 million words in praise of teaching at the University of Exeter have been collected to date! The Guild says the awards: 

"are designed to reward and recognise the hard work of our staff to improve the student experience at the University of Exeter."

It was a shock but an obvious delight to be shortlisted for an award and I was even more pleased when on the night I found out I ranked second overall and as top in the College of Humanities.

Monica and I celebrating. Photo: Exeter Student's Guild

 The winner of the Best Postgraduate Teacher, Monica Ronchi was from the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies and from meeting her on the night it is clear she is a passionate and enthusiastic educator (as well as a fun colleague and decent human being!). It is likely that we would not have met should the event have not brought us as PGR teachers into the same venue and given us a  few glasses of wine. 

Wine is important, but getting academics together to celebrate is equally vital. Too often gatherings are based around thematic intellectual ideas, funding allocations, interviews, departmental meetings and not around personal achievements and passion. These Teaching Awards brought together a group of people who share an interest outside of books, in the world, with real people and their lives. It was great! 

However nice the accolade of being shortlisted is, it was the ethos behind this event that made me feel proud of the teaching that I have undertaken this term. It is perhaps the only event I have encountered in five years at Exeter involving academic staff at the university that looks at teaching as its focus, not an add-on, a must-do, a grin-at-bear-it task in academia. It got me thinking about my own research around 'value', as it was an event driven by the optional and qualitative impressions of the students themselves. There was no clear criteria or targets to hit, many of the people nominated expressed their surprise at being there at all. 

GTAs or Postgraduate Teachers can sometimes get a bad rap, but as a result of the awards this year academic within the College sent round emails thanking each and every PhD student who contributes to the teaching within the college. This is a step in the right direction. The more positivity around teaching the better. Teaching in Higher Education shouldn't be seen as a chore, but an opportunity. The Teaching Awards offers the chance of valuation on a different scale, and one which I am happy to subscribe fully to. Impact can be measured in lots of ways, but the impact of teaching practises on people in the classroom is certainly one which deserves recognition and further thought.

Check out the full list of Winners and Runners Up here

Students and colleague Chloe Preedy (Penryn Campus) alongside myself and Richard representing the English Department across two campuses at the awards. Photo: Exeter Student's Guild

Photo: Exeter Student's Guild

The Secret History by Donna Tartt - an investigation into a novel about studying the humanities (and murder!)

Recently I read Tartt's "The Secret History and was impressed by the handling of a bunch of pretentious teenagers studying Julian Morrow's exclusive (and doubtless uppity) Greek Classics class. The Guardian well summarises the reasons that you should read this book right now, and so I will spend little time repeating the qualities of excellence that this novel clearly possesses. Read about them here instead. 

I came across these beautiful dreamcasts on Tumblr that capture the spirit of the novel

The book is most often read as a thriller, a suspense novel or perhaps as a modern bildungsroman, but I was interested in reading The Secret History as a campus novel that is not written by a teacher, but instead by a student. Unlike most student-led stories about universities, which document relationships, alcoholic beverages and social struggles (all of which are also in this book), The Secret History has students who are really interested in knowledge and teaching. This is surprisingly rare in books about universities, and the discussions about tragedy, love and beauty bring Classical ideas to life.

There are some great passing comments about the nature of the humanities and studying them - here are a few of my favourites:

“Hampden, in providing a well-rounded course of study in the Humanities, seeks not only to give students a rigorous background in the chosen field but insight into all the disciplines of Western art, civilization, and thought."

"...in doing so, we hope to provide the individual not only with facts, but with the raw materials of wisdom."

"I believe that having a great diversity of teachers is harmful and confusing for a young mind, in the same way I believe that it is better to know one book intimately that a hundred superficially,” he said. “I know the modern world tends not to agree with me, but after all, Plato had only one teacher, and Alexander.”

The humanities professor: Julian is raised to the level of a God. Like Alexander, he is ideal. He is the archetypal teacher, placed on a pedestal of perfection throughout. However, he is a strange human being outside of the classroom. He ultimately abandons his students. 

"Upon meeting Julian Morrow, one has the impression that he is a man of extraordinary sympathy and warmth. But what you call his ‘Asiatic serenity’ is, I think, a mask for great coldness. The face one shows him he invariably reflects back at one, creating the illusion of warmth and depth when in fact he is brittle and shallow as a mirror."