CREMS postgraduates recognised for teaching excellence

Posted on 5 June 2015

Gabriela Leddy, a PhD candidate in History, and Emma Kennedy, who recently received her doctorate from the Department of English, won the hotly-fought YUSU Excellence Awards for PGWT Teacher of the Year and for Outstanding Feedback.

The awards are based on student nominations, and reward excellence in teaching across the University. One of Emma's nominees proudly declared 'our discussions and her feedback never fail to develop my studies. Both in quality and quantity, her feedback wins!', whilst Gabriela's students described her as 'extremely passionate about her subject; she's helpful, reliable, and really supportive'.

Gabriela's thesis examines the familiar in early modern English witchcraft, focusing on its portrayals in pamphlet literature. She explores the transformation of ideas surrounding the familiar, in relation to gender, human/animal boundaries, and christianization, during the Reformation. This research feeds directly into her teaching, in a very popular module on 'The European Witch Craze 1450-1750'.

Emma, who has just taken up a post as Education Adviser (Early Career Teachers) at Queen Mary, University of London, recently completed her thesis, “Not barren of invention”: texts, contexts and intertexts of the London Lord Mayors' Shows, 1614-1619’, and is working on turning it into a monograph on the Shows' development as a genre. She has brought her passion for lesser-known texts, and a capacious understanding of early modern theatrical and literary culture to modules from 'The Early Renaissance' to 'Critical Questions'.

Emma and Gabriela continue in a fine tradition - last year's winner of PGWT of the Year was also a CREMS PhD candidate, Bex Lyons. Warm congratulations to all!