Each year, the University Teaching Awards are conferred to individual faculty members through the Office of the Provost. These exemplary faculty demonstrate excellence in undergraduate classroom teaching and represent innovative curricular leadership across the University. University Teaching Award recipients come from across all six Evanston undergraduate schools and NU-Qatar. We celebrate their considerable contributions to student learning.
Scroll below to see the winners of the 2024 awards, and read more about them in Northwestern Now.
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INFORMATION About the awardsPast Recipients
Assistant Professor of Theatre, School of Communication
Masi Asare champions the idea that today’s musical theatre artists “are part of musical theatre history and what it does in the world.” Empowering and challenging her students is a priority for Asare, both intellectually and technically.
Associate Professor of Instruction, Theatre Management, School of Communication.
Barbara Butts, who created the Theatre Department’s Arts Management & Leadership Program, believes that “coursework combined with mentored creative experiences equip students with the skills to become leaders and innovators.”
William F. Thomas Professor of Journalism, Medill School of Journalism.
Having led co-curricular trips to places as varied as Shanghai and Buenos Aires, Mei-Ling Hopgood views teaching the craft of storytelling as an “opportunity to help students understand and change themselves, each other and the world.”
Associate Professor of Instruction, Electrical and Computer Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering
Ilya Mikhelson uses two words to summarize his teaching philosophy: “empowerment” and “accessibility.” He seeks out ways to ensure his students walk away from his courses “less afraid to tackle whatever obstacles lie before them, and for everyone in the class to have equal access to these teachings.”
Associate Professor of French and Italian, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
A specialist of Renaissance literature, Cynthia Nazarian regularly teaches the period between 1500-1630 CE, primarily in French. She encourages students to “push through that unfamiliarity with heavy doses of encouragement and enthusiasm.”