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L&S Teaching Assistants: TA Awards
This document contains information regarding UW-Madison campus TA awards and the College of Letters & Science Teaching Fellow Award, including nomination forms and deadlines.
UW-Madison Campus-wide and L&S TA Awards
The University of Wisconsin-Madison employs more than 1,700 teaching assistants across a wide variety of disciplines, and their contributions to the classroom, lab and field are essential the University’s educational mission.
The College of Letters & Science takes a leading role in recognizing the critical role of TAs in undergraduate instruction by organizing the Campus-Wide TA Awards and the L&S Teaching Fellow Awards. For a complete listing of current TA Award recipients, please visit https://grad.wisc.edu/2019/02/11/2018-teaching-assistant-awards/
2019-2020 Nomination Deadlines:
- Fall 2019: Nominations for the Campus-wide TA Awards are due: Monday, November 11, 2019.
- Spring 2020: Nominations for the L&S Teaching Fellow Award are due: Monday, February 3, 2020
Nomination Guidelines for Departments:
For Campus-wide TA Awards: https://kb.wisc.edu/ls/page.php?id=45366
For L&S Teaching Fellow Award: Coming Soon!
The College of Letters & Science, with additional funding support from the Graduate School, takes a leading role in recognizing the critical role of TAs in undergraduate instruction by organizing the campus-wide TA awards, which are distributed at the end of the fall semester.
- Up to five winners in each award category per year
- $500 award funded by the College of Letters & Science and the Graduate School
- Teaching Assistants from all UW-Madison schools and colleges are eligible to apply
- Departments may nominate up to three TAs per year and may distribute those nominations across the award categories as they see fit, but a department or program may nominate an individual TA in only one of the four categories per year.
Campus-Wide TA Awards recognize:
Early Excellence in Teaching – recognizes outstanding and inspirational performance on the part of TAs with fewer than four semesters of teaching experience;
Exceptional Service – recognizes TAs who, in addition to their regular duties, perform exceptional service related to the educational mission of their department and our university (volunteerism, committee work, mentoring, etc.). Nominations should focus on the service performed outside of the TA's regular duties, above and beyond what is normally required.
Innovation in Teaching – recognizes TAs who bring extraordinary creativity to their work and have developed or adapted teaching methods or techniques in new and innovative ways;
Capstone Ph.D. Teaching – recognizes TAs who have performed as outstanding teachers throughout their UW-Madison tenure. Nominees must be dissertators at the end of their graduate program and planning to defend their dissertations by the end of the school year. Therefore, Teaching Assistants may be nominated only once for the Capstone Ph.D. Teaching Award.
Early Excellence in Teaching – recognizes outstanding and inspirational performance on the part of TAs with fewer than four semesters of teaching experience;
Exceptional Service – recognizes TAs who, in addition to their regular duties, perform exceptional service related to the educational mission of their department and our university (volunteerism, committee work, mentoring, etc.). Nominations should focus on the service performed outside of the TA's regular duties, above and beyond what is normally required.
Innovation in Teaching – recognizes TAs who bring extraordinary creativity to their work and have developed or adapted teaching methods or techniques in new and innovative ways;
Capstone Ph.D. Teaching – recognizes TAs who have performed as outstanding teachers throughout their UW-Madison tenure. Nominees must be dissertators at the end of their graduate program and planning to defend their dissertations by the end of the school year. Therefore, Teaching Assistants may be nominated only once for the Capstone Ph.D. Teaching Award.
Please see Campus-wide TA Awards: Frequently Asked Questions for further information about award eligibility, nominations and materials.
2019-2020 Nomination Deadlines:
Spring 2020: Nominations for the L&S Teaching Fellow Award are due by Monday, February 3, 2020.
The Teaching Fellow Award is granted to TAs from the College of Letters and Science who have achieved outstanding success as students and teachers.
Winners of this award are named L&S Teaching Fellows and serve as instructors at the L&S Fall TA Training, which takes place at the start of the fall semester and welcomes 300-400 new and experienced TAs from across campus.
2019-2020 Nomination Deadlines:
Spring 2020: Nominations for the L&S Teaching Fellow Award are due by Monday, February 3, 2020.
Winners of this award are named L&S Teaching Fellows and serve as instructors at the L&S Fall TA Training, which takes place at the start of the fall semester and welcomes 300-400 new and experienced TAs from across campus.
Selection as an L&S Teaching Fellow is a significant honor. Nomination is a means by which departments can recognize the outstanding performance of their experienced TAs. By leading workshops at the Fall TA Training, Teaching Fellows gain experience articulating their teaching philosophies as they meet and work with fellow graduate students and teachers from across the College, who share an interest in teaching undergraduate students.
- 15 winners per year
- $1,000 award funded entirely by the College of Letters & Science
- Nominations must be based on TA work within the College of Letters & Science
- Each year departments may nominate two candidates for the L&S Teaching Fellow Award.
- Nominees need not be currently teaching, but ideal candidates are those who have taught successfully in the department, who convey enthusiasm for teaching, and who will serve as good role models for new and inexperienced TAs.
- Winners of departmental awards that recognize teaching and those previously nominated or awarded a Campus-wide TA Award are eligible.
For more information or questions about TA awards, contact Brian Bubenzer, brian.bubenzer@wisc.edu