English Department PhD candidates Leila Ben-Nasr and Adam Stier have ben named two of the winners of the Graduate Associate Teaching Award for 2012. The GATA is Ohio State's highest recognition of the exceptional teaching provided by graduate students. Approximately 3,000 graduate students teach as graduate teaching associates at Ohio State each year, and 10 are honored as GATA winners by the university community. Each winner receives a $1,500 award.

The GATA award is in its 40th year. Recipients are selected by the Graduate School Awards Committee--comprised of faculty from a range of disciplines and former GATA winners.

Read more about Leila Ben-Nasr.

In my classroom, students are exposed to varying historical, cultural, religious, literary, folk, and scholarly critical perspectives. We examine literature in order to find the truth in our own shared human experience. I believe firmly in my students’ capacity to learn and grow in the traditions of more than just one culture. … 

Read more about Adam Stier,

I’m convinced that one of my foremost responsibilities as a college instructor lies in demonstrating to my students that intellectual curiosity can flourish in the least likely of places, that material at first deemed irrelevant, boring, or remote, is actually just as compelling as one’s analytical engagement allows it to become.