UCalgary Law Teaching Excellence Award winners announced

UCalgary Law is pleased to announce the winners of the annual teaching excellence awards.

The Howard Tidswell Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence is awarded each year to an instructor at the law school who demonstrates high-level teaching performance, methodology and contribution to curriculum. Instructors are nominated by students and faculty members.

Because of the unprecedented circumstances of the year, the committee decided unanimously to award two prizes for the 2020-2021 academic year - Professors Cathy Brown and Elizabeth Whitsitt. 

"William Arthur Ward said, 'The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.' It is my hope that this award is an affirmation that I am continuing to grow on the road to inspiring our students. If so, I could not be more proud," says Brown.

"Acknowledgments such as the Tidswell award are a wonderful reminder of the important role teaching plays in our faculty. I am honoured by this recognition from our law school community," says Whitsitt.

The law school also created a new award this year, one for sessional instructors. The Sessional Teaching Award also recognizes high-level teaching performance, methodology and contribution to curriculum, as well as consideration for innovative course design and/or delivery.

The 2020-2021 winner of the inaugural Sessional Teaching Award is Markham Silver, QC. 

"I was deeply honoured and moved to have been nominated for the inaugural Sessional Teaching Award and even more so for having been selected as its recipient by my peers on faculty and by the students," says Silver. "I do believe that good teachers, like good lawyers, are excellent listeners and can help students learn by accommodating their individual needs as much as possible. In these difficult times, I built trust with the students to make sure that each one not only felt valued and important, but also was in fact valued and important to me. Where they succeed, I succeeded. I am privileged to be a part of this amazing and diverse faculty among so many other sessional instructors who merit approbation and recognition and with whom I share this honour."  

"I would like to offer my heartiest congratulations to Cathy, Markham and Liz, and to everyone who was nominated for these awards. The quality of the nominations were so strong, and everyone could have easily warranted an honour," says UCalgary Law dean Ian Holloway.