Several academic staff recognised for their outstanding contributions to university life

8 academic staff from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion have been nominated for the Enriching Student Life Awards (ESLA).

Each of the School’s staff have been recognised by fellow staff and students for this year’s awards.

The ESLAs recognise the hard work by those who have made a positive contribution to the student experience and are run in partnership between Cardiff University and the Students’ Union.

A record-breaking 1,950 nominations were received across 16 categories this year, with 8 from the School of History, Archaeology and Religion who described how it felt to be nominated:

Professor Lloyd Llewllyn-Jones, Ancient History
Most Outstanding Learning Experience

What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for this award?

Being shortlisted for the Most Outstanding Learning Experience is wonderful! It is a great joy and an enormous privilege to have my work recognized like this by the students.  I teach from the head and from the heart and I give 100% in the classroom and the lecture theatre. You see, learning is infectious, and having enthusiasm and expressing the love of one’s subject means that students get the bug too! That has always been my philosophy and it has seen me through a teaching and learning career of over 20 years!

Is there any specific piece of work or event that led to your nomination? If so, what was it?

I teach very broadly across SHARE, although as a Professor of Ancient History, the world of antiquity is my core job and my greatest love. I teach things as diverse as The Handmaid’s Tale and History, Ghosts and Demons in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Nazi Germany and the Use of Classical Antiquity, Animal Histories, Transgender Identities in the Ancient World, and Attitudes to Ancient Persia in Modern Iran. You see, Ancient History is alive and vital and all around us! I love the diversity and range that Ancient History gives me: I can work across periods, cultures, and geographies. So, I hope that my nomination and shortlisting come out of the variety of subjects I offer: there is something for everyone!

Is there anyone or anything you'd like to acknowledge in relation to your nomination?

I want to say thank you to all my students. We can only be effective teachers because we have willing and able students to work alongside us. I also want to thank all my colleagues in the Department of Ancient History and Religion. We are all going through dark times right now, but let us keep working together, being committed to our students, and looking to a better future for the subjects we love.

Dr Marion Loeffler
Doctoral Supervisor of the Year

What does it mean to you to be nominated for this award?

I am nominated for at least one award every year, but this year is very special, because two female historians, myself and Dr Steph Ward have not only been nominated but also shortlisted.

This speaks to the sustained quality of the doctoral supervision in the History section of our School, but especially of those students who are working on Welsh postcolonial and gender history as part of the Cardiff Centre of Welsh History.

Is there any specific piece of work or event that led to your nomination? If so, what was it?

I believe a number of students in my new Year Three, special subject, module ‘Peripheral Reverberations of the French Revolution’ nominated me, because they wrote the loveliest feedback on this semester one module, and we had a wonderful time together.

My own doctoral students nominated me because I care deeply about them, but I have also assisted some doctoral students in other sections by, for instance, writing references for them and helping in SHARE with Schools events by delivering taster lectures to secondary school children.

Is there anyone or anything you'd like to acknowledge in relation to your nomination?

I am very grateful to all my students – undergraduate and postgraduate. I learn as much from them as they from me every year. The nominations mean as much to me as the home-made cake a male Year 2 student brought me on Friday afternoon because he thought I deserved a cake for Mothering Sunday. That was a first, too!

Professor Kate Gilliver
Vice-Chancellor's Award 

What does it mean to you to be nominated for this award?

It means a huge amount to be nominated for an award by our students and I'm absolutely delighted and feel genuinely honoured. A lot of my work focuses on improving our students' experiences and it's lovely that our students think it's having an impact.

I'm really touched to have been shortlisted, but represent a team of over 100 students and staff who contributed to the project over the last 2 and a half years!

Is there any specific piece of work or event that led to your nomination? If so, what was it?

This is the one where I'm not sure.  I assume I've been shortlisted for the work I've done as Academic Partner for Assessment & Feedback on the Rethinking Assessment Project, a major university initiative to improve students' (and staff) experience of assessment & feedback.

This involved a lot of partnership work with students which was brilliant, making a hugely important contribution to the work and ensuring that what we were doing really addressed their needs.

Is there anyone or anything you'd like to acknowledge in relation to your nomination?

I haven't been able to do much teaching over the last couple of years because I've been on secondment to the university leading the project mentioned above and I really miss that, but working with students on the project has been incredibly rewarding in different ways.

The SU Officers have been hugely supportive and we've had Student Champions working on different parts of the project too; all bring really important perspectives, different experiences and different expertise to the work and we wouldn't have been able to what we did without them.

Dr Stephanie Ward
Doctoral Supervisor of the Year

What does it mean to you to be nominated for this award?

I am honoured and delighted to have been shortlisted for Doctoral Supervisor of the Year award. I currently supervise six PhD students, and it is a privilege to work with students who are so dedicated to their diverse subject matters within Welsh history.

Undertaking a PhD is an enormous commitment and as a PhD supervisor you get to help students develop not only their research, but also their journey through presenting their research, engagement activities, teaching and placements.

I am really grateful for the nomination and it means a great deal to me.

Head of School Professor Vicki Cummings added, “The large number of nominations in our School is a tribute to the dedication and commitment of our staff to our students and to the University.

“Staff in the School pride themselves on providing an outstanding student experience and these nominations are a testament to that.”

Other nominees are Hanaadi Ghazzawi (Champion for Student Voice and Partnership), Ian Dennis (Champion for Student Voice and Partnership), Anna-Elyse Young (PGR Graduate Tutor or Demonstrator of the Year) and Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed (Vice-Chancellor’s Award).

SHARE with Schools Postgrad Coordinators and Student Volunteers has also been nominated for the President’s Award.

Find out more about the School of History, Archaeology and Religion and our amazing team.

Wishing all nominees the best of luck.