Professor Ron Levi receives U of T's Global Educator Award

Ron Levi has been recognized by the University of Toronto for excellence in teaching with the Global Educator Award. 

Levi is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Faculty of Arts & Science and holds a cross-appointment with the Faculty of Law.

“I see my role in the classroom as offering an arc for the course, while encouraging a sense of curiosity from students week to week. That also means leaving just enough on the table for students to be thinking of the next question the following week. I also try to encourage curiosity by providing students with multiple perspectives on the content that we cover, ranging from empirical research to legal cases and journalistic accounts.

Outside the classroom, I have also tried to support this same kind of curiosity by helping to build new programs. This includes new undergraduate study opportunities for problem-solving and experiential learning, and international partnerships for graduate study with institutions elsewhere. The thread running through these, for me, is a focus on giving students the opportunity to learn from several perspectives throughout their time here. To me, that sense of curiosity is what helps to foster an engaged citizenship with the world around us.

If I think about advice I give to myself, my feeling is that it comes down to trying to take the course myself as I teach it each time. Overall, it is about allowing the course material to offer us some surprise and insight and communicating that in the classroom. Those moments in the course might be less tightly packaged, but I hope students see that we are working through the material together.”

Read the U of T News story