Newnham College is proud to announce that Dr Manali Desai, Fellow of Newnham College and Reader in Sociology, has been awarded the 2019 Pilkington Teaching Prize in recognition of her excellence in teaching.
The Pilkington Prize awards were endowed and inaugurated in 1994 by Sir Alastair Pilkington to acknowledge those who make a substantial contribution to the teaching programme of a Department, Faculty or the University as a whole. Among other members of the University recognised in recent years is Dr Emma Mawdsley, Vice-Principal of Newnham.
Comments on Dr Desai’s nomination read:
“Dr Desai is widely revered as a skilled and experienced leader of pedagogical innovation, and she has drawn on her considerable talent to deliver improvements at every level of teaching in the Department – from the introductory undergraduate paper (SOC 1 ), to the MPhil and PhD programmes. Dr Desai works efficiently and thoughtfully, while also inclusively and creatively, to generate a team approach to curriculum improvements. She is highly skilled in both eliciting and using student feedback, but she is quick to incorporate suggestions from colleagues and peers as well.
At root, she is effective not only because she really cares, and is deeply committed to the difference more inclusive – and better — teaching methods can make, but because she has acquired so much experience over many years, and at several institutions, in designing and implementing changes that count. These changes are both large and small – from slight adjustments to classroom delivery to macro-level reforms of the curriculum. Dr Desai works on a continuous feedback basis, incorporating immediate changes where possible, and devising means to deliver other, more overarching reforms, at the appropriate points in the annual cycle.
She is extremely highly respected and valued by students and colleagues alike, who seek her out to solve problems for which they cannot find remedies elsewhere. She is truly a teacher who makes education count.”
Manali Desai’s teaching is grounded in her research, including research into class formation in urban India, long-term development in India, and gender and sexual violence in India and South Africa.
The College is delighted by this recognition of Dr Desai’s outstanding contribution to teaching.