Undergraduate Teaching Awards

Nominations open now for the 2025 Teaching Awards: When nominating your inspiring instructors, please make note of the eligibility criteria for each award category. Send an email describing how your nominees have contributed to your academic success. In addition to their names, please be sure to include the course title and number, quarter in which you enrolled, and the section number if applicable. The deadline to send nominations is the first Friday of the Spring quarter (March 28, 2025). To submit nominations, or for questions, email collegeteachingawards@uchicago.edu. Winners will be announced at the annual College Teaching Awards Reception in the spring.

Details on each award can be found below:

The Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The Quantrell Award is one of the nation’s oldest prizes for undergraduate teaching established in 1937 to honor scholar-teachers who inspire students to become more enlightened thinkers and effective citizens of their communities and of our nation. Based upon nominations from students, the Quantrell Award honors three to six long-term, full-time UChicago instructors who are tenured or tenure-track faculty, serve as Senior Lecturers, Lecturers, Instructional Professors, or Professors of the Practice in the Arts of any rank or title. The awards are presented at the College Diploma Ceremony in June. Read more about the Quantrell Awards and previous winners.

Glenn and Claire Swogger Award for Exemplary Classroom Teaching

The Glenn and Claire Swogger Award recognizes outstanding teachers who introduce our students to habits of scholarly thinking, inquiry and engagement through the College Core. The Swogger Award honors up to four teachers with College teaching appointments (excluding graduate student lecturers, who are eligible for the Wayne Booth Teaching Award and various divisional teaching prizes), who have made significant contributions to the College’s General Education programs in the previous academic year. The award is based upon nominations from students. Read more about the Glenn and Claire Swogger Award and previous winners.

The Wayne C. Booth: Graduate Student Prize in Undergraduate Teaching

The Booth Prize honors graduate students who have taught in a formal capacity in the College for at least two quarters. Up to four awards are given at the annual Honors Awards Reception. Read more about the Booth Prizes and previous winners.

The College Undergraduate Student Prize in Undergraduate Teaching

The College is introducing a new teaching prize in acknowledgment of the great work of undergraduate students who serve as teaching assistants. Please nominate your outstanding TAs for the College Undergraduate Teaching Prize and include the course number and section that the nominee has taught. The award honors up to five undergraduate TAs.