U of T Scarborough English professor Maria Assif receives a U of T Teaching Fellowship

Prof. Maria Assif, an associate professor, teaching stream, in the department of English at U of T Scarborough, has received a U of T Teaching Fellowship.

The fellowship – one of two awarded in 2019-20 – gives teaching stream faculty members the opportunity to engage in a pedagogical project that will benefit students and that is in an area of institutional priority. Each fellow receives $10,000 to hire graduate students as research assistants, and an additional $5,000 for professional development.

Prof. Assif has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate writing and literature courses. Her new textbook, Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay (Oxford University Press), will be published in 2021; she is also working on a critical database of Arab women’s writing. As part of her fellowship, she plans to develop a new academic writing course with a focus on essay writing and research skills.

“Receiving this fellowship is one of the highlights of my academic career,” says Assif. “It is a reaffirmation of the hard work I have put forth over a decade.”