Teaching Excellence Award

Established in 2025, the UAAC–AAUC Teaching Excellence Award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated sustained excellence in the teaching of art, art history and/or visual culture at a Canadian university, college, or post-secondary institution.

Nomination packages including all required materials must be submitted via our online form link  by May 31. We welcome nominations of early career educators, including adjunct faculty, LTAs, ETAs, as well as tenure-track and tenured educators and self-nominations.

The winner will be announced at UAAC’s Conference and will be granted UAAC Lifetime Membership.

Eligibility:

• Post nomination using the online form . 
• Deadline to nominate is May 31st.  **EXTENDED TO JUNE  30**

Required materials for both nomination, and self-nomination include:

•  A nomination letter highlighting the candidate’s contributions to art and arts education written by colleague, department head, or student familiar with nominee’s teaching.
• A teaching statement drafted by the candidate outlining their philosophy, innovative teaching practices, effective teaching and learning leadership and/or contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning art and art history (SoTL-AH).
• A CV emphasizing teaching, supervision, and educational service.

Nominees:

• UAAC-AAUC Members in good standing
• Have a record of significant teaching contributions in any capacity (tenured, tenure track, sessional, adjunct, LTA, ETA, teaching professor, lecturer),
• Teach in any area of art, art history or visual culture (e.g., studio art, research-creation, Indigenous art history, museum studies).

Teaching Excellence Award 2025: Samantha Chang and Jessica Mace

UofT, Pharm IBP Feb 18, 2009

UAAC is recognizing Samantha Chang (Part-time Professor, Art History, U of T) with our inaugural Pedagogy Award for the way she transforms the Art History classroom into an inviting, accessible, and inspiring space, with an emphasis on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Indigeneity, and Accessibility (EDIIA). In both smaller and larger courses, Samantha takes care to shake up the Eurocentrism of traditional Art History by inserting global content while prioritizing craft and design. She is deeply committed to accessibility and student support — impressively, Samantha holds mandatory “student hours” (rather than “office hours”) in “Monuments of Art History,” where she meets individually with hundreds of students each year. Pedagogical practices like this foster a genuine sense of belongingness for her students. In the words of her nominator, Christine Clemens, Samantha is an “inimitable, stunning example of what the classroom environment has the potential to be.”