Winner - Freya Verlander (SCAPVC)

Through the lens of a series of photographs documenting my students’ brilliant creative/critical responses to seminars/assessments, I focus on the work I’ve done in re-designing core modules on the undergraduate curriculum in TPS. I use playful teaching methods and materials, my approach to curriculum design/seminars brings theory and practice into dialogue. I work with student feedback on a rolling basis to inform not only redesign, but the content of modules in real-time. Throughout, i have integrated student-as-researcher, and student as co-creator, pedagogies at the heart of my modules.

About Freya

Freya Verlander is a Teaching Fellow in Theatre & Performance Studies. Her research, broadly, focuses on the skin and our sense of touch in both performance works and the everyday. Freya is currently working on her first monograph: 'Ordinary Skins: Extraordinary Intimacies.'

Highly Commended - Ian Farnell (SCAPVC)

Through a fun and engaging teaching style, I generate exciting opportunities for critical thought. By prioritising kindness and connection in all encounters, I foster meaningful exchanges both within the classroom and beyond. Through collaboration and dialogue, I cultivate unique learning opportunities that prepare students for the future. In discussing these strategies, I also capture the sheer joy found in teaching and learning for all participants.

About Ian

Ian is a Teaching Fellow in Theatre and Performance Studies, working across our undergraduate programme. Ian received the Postgraduate Teaching Excellence Award in 2022. As a vegan, nature advocate and enthusiastic (if average) bird photographer, Ian is developing modules and projects that explore and protect the natural world.

Commended - Yinghong Shang (School of Modern Languages and Cultures)

My lessons are designed to encourage the students to love learning the Chinese and engage with Chinese culture. I help my students develop holistically as people and learn to thrive individually and collectively with others in diverse environments after they leave university. I have tried my best to support my students’ academic needs as well as social, cultural, emotional, and ethical aspects of needs. I also engage my students as co-creators and collaborators in my teaching. I often discuss with my students about the teaching and lesson plan and incorporate the students’ opinion to my work.

About Yinghong

Yinghong is an assistant professor of Chinese at the Language Centre of SMLC who teaches Chinese modules of all levels. Yinghong is the co-Ordinator, and judge of annual competition of Chinese calligraphy, Fellow of HEA, committee member (Technical officer) of British Chinese Language Teaching Society (BCLTS).

Postgraduates who teach award: Arts Faculty

Winner - Elizabeth Sharrock (English and Comparative Literary Studies)

Creative, collaborative learning and the nurturing of students’ intellectual curiosity through inclusive approaches are integral pillars of my teaching philosophy. I believe that in contexts where students feel empowered, the study of literature has the potential to generate radical empathy for others by challenging and expanding our worldviews. It is the greatest privilege of my role to be able to foster these productive contexts together with my students. Having taught at four higher education institutions in my career thus far, I have curated a range of diverse and evidence-based pedagogical principles which inform my teaching here at Warwick.

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth is an Associate Tutor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies with expertise in the literature and drama of the early modern period. Elizabeth's research is particularly interested in how Shakespeare’s works are framed in new media through time, from eighteenth-century editions to live theatre broadcasts.

Winner - Hande Cayir (SCAPVC)

My passion lies in co-creating inclusive learning spaces tailored to diverse communities and sparking out-of-the-box thinking. I promote participation and curiosity using research-oriented methods and multimedia tools such as a real-time audience engagement app, doodling, and polls. Each seminar’s anonymous student feedback is invaluable, guiding my continuous development as an educator who prioritises creative-relational inquiry. My aim is to cultivate an environment where all students feel welcomed, heard, and valued. Mindful of the impact of everyday language, I respect preferred names and pronouns. I celebrate students as partners, encouraging their unique perspectives and potential for change-making.

About Hande

Hande is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and PGR/filmmaker in Film and TV Studies, which they love! Hande's research explores mental health activism and documentary, for which they recently received an award from the BAFTSS. Peer reviewing for Disability & Society journal lets Hande make a meaningful impact and develop personally.

Commended - Owain Burrell (English and Comparative Literary Studies)

I believe that the most important aspect of university teaching is encouraging students to develop their sense of their ‘scholarly self’ – an understanding of their place within academia, and the importance of what they bring to the academy. I try through my teaching to encourage this development through framing cultural studies in its wider context, letting students take the lead on applying the critical skills key to our module and discipline to the world around them, and working with them to bring their specific interests and passions into their work.

About Owain

Owain is a third-year PhD student in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, who's thesis is entitled 'The Grammar School Ideal in British Literature 1945-1990'. Owain has taught a number of modules across the university over the last two years.

Commended - Andy Irwin (English)

Excellent teaching changed my life and now my mission is to create an inclusive learning space in which students can flourish socially and intellectually. I use a rigorous approach to planning for, and flexible approach to delivery in, small group teaching and the co-creation of learning. I embed inclusive practices--large and small--in my teaching and my holistic approach to student support. I seek to empower students to convert our group learning into effective preparation for assessments.

About Andy

Andy is a PhD researcher in queer studies and twenty-first century anglophone literature with an interest in queer-informed activism and praxis. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is the inaugural Conference Scholar at Cornell University's School of Criticism and Theory in 2024.