Daniel Grimley wins OUSU Teaching Award

Merton's Tutor in Music Professor Daniel Grimley has won a 2016 OUSU Teaching Award. Dan was voted Outstanding Supervisor in the Humanities category, and was presented with his award at an event at Oxford Town Hall on Tuesday evening.

The Oxford University Student Union Teaching Awards provide students with direct opportunities to recognise excellence in teaching. During Hilary term, students can nominate candidates in six categories by writing testimonials explaining how they meet specific criteria; those for Dan's category include 'Develops the supervisee’s independence while always remaining approachable' and 'Creates a stimulating and consistently challenging research environment'. The winners, who are chosen from a shortlist by a panel of OUSU representatives, are used as examples to promote excellent teaching around Oxford.

Commenting on the award, Dan paid tribute to his own doctoral supervisor, Professor W Dean Sutcliffe, who is now Professor in the School of Music at the University of Auckland.

He continued:

"I'm really thrilled to have such amazing and talented graduate students at Oxford. They're working on a diverse range of topics—from Scandinavian theatre music, Hungarian Romantic opera, and the musical construction of childhood in belle-époque France, to South African opera, the symphony in 1933, and contemporary music.

"I learn more from my graduates every day than they'll ever know, and that's also true of my undergrads as well. It is genuinely a privilege working with them, and I'm certain that they will shape the discipline's major questions for many years to come."