St. Mike’s Writing Instructor Esther Atkinson has received this year’s Margaret Proctor Award for Excellence in Writing Instruction.
The award, given to a University of Toronto writing instructor each year for outstanding teaching and mentorship, is in honour of Margaret Procter, who co-ordinated UofT writing support from 1994 to 2012.
In an email announcing their decision, the award committee praised Esther’s dedication to St. Michael’s, her scholarly work, and “most of all, [her] love for teaching and the impact [she has] made on students”. Archivist and librarian James Roussain, who has worked with her in drop-in writing and research consultations, enthusiastically agrees, saying she instils in students “a sense of confidence as writers and scholars.”
Esther received her PhD from the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology in March 2022 and has taught students one-on-one at the St. Michael’s Writing Centre since 2017. This is her second teaching award; Esther received the TATP Teaching Excellence Award in 2014.
Esther also teaches one of the new BMS fundamentals courses, BMS201: Information Literacy, Research, and Writing for Book & Media Studies, using her training as an historian and her experience as a writing instructor to develop students’ critical engagement with research and writing.