Congratulations to Dr. David Parker and Dr. Heena Mistry, winners of the 2018-19 History Teaching Awards. The Teaching Awards were presented on November 28th at the Department of History’s Annual Faculty Lecture/reception.
Dr. David Parker received the 2018-19 Award in Teaching Excellence for Faculty/Adjunct Teaching for his course History 315 Modern Latin American History.
One student who nominated Dr. Parker said that History 315 been the “most helpful course I had so far taken in my time in University… I had very little knowledge of Latin American. But after taking this class, I feel I have learned an extreme amount of detail about a subject I had very little knowledge about.” According the student’s nomination, Dr. Parker was able to teach the subject to a “very wide degree of students that work for all of us. He was able to provide out of class help and was able to help many students with many different needs for the exam, final paper and small assignments.” Dr. Parker was also praised for being able to teach skills of writing and doing research beyond the course content. “I feel this is one of many classes I have taken that was interesting,” wrote the student, “but one of a few I can say helped me in my future life in the market place outside of the university.” Another student agreed, saying that Dr. Parker constantly went out of his way providing a plethora of ideas and or comments to better everyone’s work.
Dr. Heena Mistry received the 2018-19 Award in Teaching Excellence for a Teaching Fellow for her course History 404 Themes in Diaspora History.
A History 404 student described Dr. Mistry’s class as a “space where we could have really excellent discussions on the interesting readings she chose for us.” The student especially liked HIST 404’s podcast assignment because it was a “different way to present and I thought it was structured well.” A member of the department noted that Dr. Mistry designed her own seminar course on diaspora history, a course that many undergraduate students adored. She is described as being a very effective teacher, and her teaching evaluations reveal her aptitude and success. Her course syllabi should give you an indication of the innovativeness and thoughtfulness that goes into her teaching. Heena is devoted to developing new pedagogical techniques in keeping with the changing times, for example, she developed a Podcast series in her diaspora course that became immensely popular with the students.
