A UTSC Anthropology professor has been honoured with a teaching award from the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA).
Associate Professor Maggie Cummings received the CASCA Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE), which recognizes excellence in teaching anthropology.
The members of the committee praised Professor Cummings for her multi-faceted approach to critical pedagogy in anthropology, for bringing the best of anthropological thinking to those new to the discipline, and for showing how thinking anthropologically is relevant across disciplines and across life experiences.
“It is a pleasure and an honour to be awarded the 2024 CASCA Award for Teaching Excellent/Prix d’excellence en enseignement,” says Prof. Cummings. “When I think about teaching anthropology, especially to intro students, I am always reminded of my own days as an undergraduate. I took my first anthropology course on a whim, just to meet a breadth requirement. What I learned in that course—ideas, perspectives, beliefs and practices that challenged and expanded my own limited views of society and culture—changed how I thought about the world and my own place in it. Learning about anthropology set me on a path that I could not otherwise have imagined for myself when I was younger. I try to share that feeling of wonder and potential when I teach, and I am happy to know that it seems to be working as a way to connect with students. Of course, teaching well is easy when you are surrounded by smart colleagues who are also excellent teachers, which is certainly the case for me here in the UTSC Anthropology department.”
The Department of Anthropology would like to congratulate Prof. Cummings on this well-deserved award!