It is our pleasure to announce Kristen Beard as the winner of the 2024-25 Martha Lile Love Teaching Award for her outstanding work teaching PHLB13 Philosophy and Feminism.
The committee was greatly impressed by Kristen’s solutions to the difficult task of teaching a large online class in the time of large language models (LLMs). Her innovative assignments—which included community interviews and public philosophy video presentations—asked students to engage in dialogue and to connect insights from the course with their own lives, simultaneously preventing the misuse of AI while developing meaningful skills. Kristen’s detailed assignment instructions, and her clear explanations of grading criteria, showed respect and care for the students’ learning experience. The fit of form and content in this course proved notable: it did not just teach feminist philosophy, it also enacted it by underscoring the importance of consent for the interview assignments and, more generally, by its emphasis on working toward social change. One commenter on Kristen’s teaching called her facility with the course material “jaw-dropping.” Congratulations, Kristen!
The committee also made two honorable mentions: It recognized Patrick Fraser for his work teaching PHL356 Philosophy and Physics, and Cameron Yetman for his work teaching PHL240 Persons, Minds, and Bodies.
In teaching his 300-level course in the philosophy of physics, Patrick succeeded in making a difficult topic accessible and engaging to students with highly divergent skill sets. Patrick carefully selected his course materials to minimize the need for prior technical knowledge, and designed handouts and assignments that helped students develop their skills through innovative games and original presentations of key ideas.
Cameron impressed the committee with his dedication to the craft of teaching, especially his ability to take pedagogical lessons from his students. Cameron collected surveys on Quercus that asked his students what he should STOP doing, START doing, and CONTINUE doing. Based on their responses, he quickly implemented changes that improved his pedagogical effectiveness over the duration of his summer course.
We thank all our Graduate Course Instructors for their hard work and dedication over the past year. This year’s award competition forced the committee to make some decidedly difficult decisions, and as a department, we greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts.
A final, quick thank-you goes to Mike Miller and Simona Vucu for their service on this year’s Martha Lile Love Award committee.
SHARE
