Jury Prize for Sex/Trans/Race

The jury praised Diego Semerene's course Sex/Race/Trans: Human Life-Forms. According to the jury, the course has created a space where students felt free to speak, thrive, and live. "This is truly thanks to the amazing lecturer, who has provided their students with in-depth personal feedback and who has put a lot of care into creating awareness on a range of topics and experiences that has made students feel safe, appreciated and even empowered."

Not only does the course push norms and transcend boundaries of disciplines, theories and didactic practices, but it also provides tools to incorporate and play with ideas that go beyond the norm and which could open up a whole new range of academic approaches for students to incorporate in further research.

Audience Award for Yiddish

The course Modern Yiddish Language Acquisition, taught by Daniella Zaidman-Mauer, received the most votes for the Audience Award. It was the first time this year that students could study Yiddish at the UvA again (see: Yiddish back in Amsterdam). The UvA is the only university where this language, which is a key to everyday Jewish history, is taught. Instructor Zaidman-Mauer is a native speaker of the language and focuses her teaching on the Yiddish as it was spoken in Amsterdam until the mid-19th century.

In second place was Authors in Focus: Renaissance Women Writers by Kristine Johanson and Anna-Rose Shack.

The nominees

Six courses were in the running for the Education Prize 2023. The shortlist was selected from a record number of 33 courses nominated by students and staff. In addition to the winning courses, the nominees were:

• Authors in Focus: Renaissance Women Writers - Kristine Johanson and Anna-Rose Shack
• Critical Programming and Co-Creation. The Futures of Culture and its Institutions - Margriet Schavemaker
• Islamic Esotericism and its Medieval Legacies - Liana Saif
• Literature, Landscape, and Ecology - Gaston Franssen, Marrigje Paijmans and Feike Dietz

The jury consisted of:

• Sabine van Wesemael - director Graduate School of Humanities (chair)
• Peter van Dam - winner of the Education Award 2022
• David Hollanders - lecturer and member of the Works Council
• Angelina Senchi - secretary of the Faculty Student Council

Watch the videos below about the other nominated courses.