is delighted to announce that Giulia Andreoni is a winner of the Center for Teaching Innovation's Cornelia Ye Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.
The award honors two outstanding teaching assistants (TAs) who have clearly demonstrated dedication and excellence in their teaching responsibilities. Dr. Andreoni, who recently defended her doctoral dissertation and will graduate in May 2021, has received a $500 award in recognition of her exceptional achievements in teaching.
"My goal in teaching is to accompany students towards becoming profound critical thinkers as well as creative individuals,” Andreoni said, adding that theatre can be a particularly effective means not only of teaching Italian language and literature, and writing, but also promoting cross-cultural understanding.
Andreoni believes that experiential learning is crucial for students. “It allows for a profound understanding and engagement with the material, for example through drama pedagogy to teach literature, writing, and Italian language,” she said. “Moreover, the use of theatre fosters collaboration, develops empathy through a change of role and perspective, and, by simulating authentic contexts, provides a communicative purpose.”
Andreoni’s research interests focus on the Medieval and Renaissance periods, on early modern comparative literature and theatre with special attention to questions of intertextuality, on gender studies, and on environmental humanities.
A native of Rome, Andreoni received her bachelor’s degree and first master’s degree from Sapienza University of Rome, in Modern Languages and Literatures (English, Italian, Spanish), where she also specialized in Shakespearean criticism.
Upon joining the Department of at Cornell, she received second master’s degree, a major concentration in Italian and minors in Comparative Literature and English, while working toward her doctorate.
For her classes, Andreoni works hard “to devise innovative pedagogical practices that result from an intermingling of language and literature with other disciplines such as theatre, operatic music, art, and environmental humanities.”
She also recently was interviewed on “Speaking of Language,” the Cornell Language Resource Center’s weekly podcast about language learning experiences and pedagogy. The podcast is a series devoted to informal conversations with educators, students, and others working at the intersection of language learning and pedagogy.
The Center for Teaching Innovation offers graduate students a range of grants and awards to support the implementation of innovative and evidence-based teaching methods. They also collaborate with departments and colleges in supporting other related teaching development initiatives. The Cornelia Ye Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, awarded annually, honors two outstanding teaching assistants who have clearly demonstrated dedication and excellence in their teaching responsibilities.
