<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">Hi all,</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">It is my great pleasure to let you know that the 2020-2021 Siegel Teaching Prize winners are Alona Bach and Luísa Reis Castro. The Siegel Teaching Prize was established 15 years
ago, to recognize graduate students who have excelled as instructors of MIT undergraduates. </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">The prize committee, Rosalind Williams and David Kaiser, prepared the following prize citation:</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">“Academic year 2020-21was a stress test for teachers and students alike, as everyone struggled to adapt to the intellectual and interpersonal challenges of virtual education. The
stresses on teaching assistants were especially strong, as seen by the quantity and quality of the nominations we received for this year’s Siegel Teaching Prize. All the nominators emphasized the crucial role of teaching assistants in boosting class morale
and exploiting on-line technologies to maximum advantage. Also, all the nominators expressed heartfelt appreciation for their partnership with teaching assistants under such demanding circumstances. </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">The two winners of this year’s Siegel Teaching Prize brought welcome moral and technical support to their classes, as well as broadening their intellectual reach. The winners
are<b class="">Luísa Reis Castro</b>, who has just completed her HASTS doctorate, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">Alona Bach</b>, who is entering her third year of HASTS studies. Luísa Reis Castro was nominated by Robin Wolfe Scheffler,
who oversaw STS.006J, “Bioethics,” a CI-H subject, in the fall of 2020. Alona Bach was nominated by William Broadhead, with whom she worked in support of 21H.132, “The Ancient World: Rome” in the spring of 2021.</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">When Luísa Reis Castro noticed mid-semester in fall 2020 that the students in “Bioethics” were flagging under the stresses of the pandemic, she responded by offering them choices
in lesson plans and modes of class participation. She also tapped her own professional network to bring in an academic guest lecturer. </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">Towards the end of the term, Luísa helped organize a mini-debate about universal health care as a right. Doing this on-line led to a lively exchange of dialogue and chats, culminating
in a collaboratively edited Google document. She drew the debate to a close by discussing how students could start planning their final essay, a CI-H requirement. In Professor Scheffler’s words, “[Luísa] had thought long and deeply not only about the practice
of pedagogy but also how to support her students’ growth.”</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">Alona Bach’s doctoral research is distant from Rome, but she led weekly recitation sections covering, in Professor Broadhead’s words, “the vast sweep” of Roman history. Each recitation
introduced a new ancient source for close reading and discussion. In their class evaluations, students thanked Alona for raising questions that helped their understanding of these sources, and for giving them detailed written and verbal feedback in one-on-one
meetings.</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">Alona accepted Professor Broadhead’s invitation (not a requirement) to deliver a one-hour lecture to the whole class. Instead of relying on her own research topics, Alona organized
this opportunity as an introduction to Roman social history that she called “History from the Margins.” In Broadhead’s judgment, “It was masterful.” Alona was “In complete control of the material,” he reflected, as well as of Zoom’s interactive features. The
lecture began with a chat-based brainstorming exercise raising questions about social history and moved on to various types of evidence, including archaeological ones. The class drew to a close by Alona’s “asking the students why one should study this kind
of history.” In such ways, Alona Bach and Luísa Reis Castro were not just assisting in the teaching of these classes; they were helping expand and enrich them.”</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">Please join me in congratulating Alona and Luísa for this wonderful and much deserved honor. I am also grateful to Rosalind and David for serving on the prize committee.</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">best,</span><o:p class=""></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class="">Deborah</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif;" class=""><br class="">
</span></div>
<div class="">
<div><font size="3" class="">Deborah Fitzgerald<br class="">
Leverett Howell and William King Cutten Professor of the History of Technology</font></div>
<div><font size="3" class="">Interim Head<br class="">
Program in Science, Technology, and Society<br class="">
MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue<br class="">
Bldg. E51-296A<br class="">
Cambridge, MA 02139<br class="">
<a href="mailto:dkfitz@mit.edu" class="">dkfitz@mit.edu</a><br class="">
<br class="">
</font></div>
</div>
<br class="">
</body>
</html>