Senior lecturer Deepika Marya has been awarded the College Outstanding Teaching Award for the 2022-2023 academic year by the Commonwealth Honors College (CHC). The award recognizes excellence in teaching and honors individual faculty members at each of the university’s colleges for their instructional accomplishments. Each spring, the colleges give the award to a faculty member who demonstrates excellence and creativity in teaching, a positive impact on their students and a mastery of their subject.

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Marya says she was humbled to hear that she was the recipient of the award this year and is thankful to her students who have “taught” her.

“The award is an opportunity to pay closer attention to pedagogy, so it responds to my overall goal of making students more interested in learning,” she says.

Marya has been at UMass Amherst since 2015 and decided to go into teaching while completing her doctoral studies. She teaches two seminars for CHC, one of them being an honors thesis seminar on globalization. In this class, she looks for students who have an interest in understanding even just a part of globalization and are willing to produce something for the class that they are excited about.

“They are not only the learners, but they decide what is important for them and how they will go about developing their ideas,” she explains.

“Professor Marya is deeply committed to students and facilitating a classroom environment that rigorously engages with the critical issues affecting our world today,” says CHC Dean Mari Castañeda. “Her pedagogical approach is rooted in justice and joy, and we are very lucky to have her part of our Honors faculty.”

“The word education, as you know, comes from the Latin word educere meaning to lead and draw out,” Marya says. “How we do it – leading and drawing out – makes all the difference.”

She says that her favorite part about being an educator is being able to help students “think for themselves” and learning what “excites different people.”

The College Outstanding Teaching Award is a program co-administered by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Each award consists of $1,000 prize and a commemorative plaque. All staff and faculty are eligible for the award and are nominated by their respective colleges each year.

More information about the award and a list of previous recipients is available on the CTL website.