Dragana Obradović recognized with OCUFA Teaching Award
Published: November 12, 2021
Dragana Obradović, an associate professor in the Faculty of Science’s department of Slavic languages and literatures, has received one of the province’s highest teaching honours.
Obradović was named one of Ontario’s most outstanding university teachers for 2020-2021 by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA). She is one of three University of Toronto faculty members receiving the award. The others are Micah Stickel of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Mairi Cowan of the department of historical studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
“My colleagues and I were thrilled to learn of Dragana’s teaching award,” says Taras Koznarsky, a professor of Ukrainian literature and the department’s interim chair. “We certainly knew that Dragana is a star teacher, but it’s wonderful to see her recognized in this way. Her intimate knowledge of Slavic cultures and the Balkans – an area known for its traumatic recent and distant past – showcases her talents as a keen and nuanced critical thinker.”
Alongside classes in literature and cultural history, Obradović teaches Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) as one language – an approach that required single-handedly creating teaching materials from scratch because no textbooks existed for such a course.
“Thousands of faculty are eligible for this award and I remember feeling so much gratitude for the nomination itself,” says Obradović “It was a huge investment of time on the part of my faculty colleagues, and they were clearly interested in putting in that work for me.
“The award itself is the icing on the cake.”
