College of Humanities and Social Sciences teaching and learning director Professor Lisa Emerson has been named a principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Professor Emerson is the first Massey academic to be accepted into the small international group of principal fellows, and only one of 10 in New Zealand. There are just 1000 principal fellows worldwide. The fellowships are awarded by Advance HE, a British organisation dedicated to improving the quality of higher education worldwide.
Principal fellowship is the highest strategic level attainable and is granted when a sustained record of local, national and international strategic impact on teaching and student learning has been sufficiently demonstrated.
Teaching, Professor Emerson says, is one of the most exciting and rewarding professions. “Being that person who inspires and guides is really important and at Massey we have a diverse range of students so we need passionate and skilled teachers who can really make a difference.”
Professor Emerson has experienced first-had the impact of having remarkable teachers. “I came to University to study psychology and took a couple papers in English and, within two papers, my whole life had changed and I discovered my passion was writing and English.”
Professor Emerson joined Massey in 1998 and has taught and designed courses in writing across the University. In 2012, she was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to develop scholarly work on mathematicians and senior scientists as writers. She is currently working on projects related to information literacy and the academic library, mathematicians as writers, and rhetorics of bullying in higher education.
She was a winner of the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award at the 2008 national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards. Her research interests include science writing, plagiarism, information literacy and writing in the disciplines. Her teaching philosophy is discussed in Iain Hay’s Inspiring Academics: Learning with the World’s Great University Teachers (2011, OUP).
Professor Emerson says she hopes she is the first of many to receive the prestigious fellowship at the University. “This is in an important piece of recognition as it reflects the energy and passion that Massey puts into its teaching.”
Director of Massey’s National Centre for Teaching and Learning Duncan O’Hara says the fellowships are highly-regarded and recognised across the world. “Achieving a principal fellow is quite an achievement as it signifies excellence not only in teaching and learning practice but also represents the wide span of influence that person has at Massey, in New Zealand and globally.
“It’s exceptionally difficult to obtain principal fellow, with over a two thirds of all applications received being rejected,” Mr O’Hara says. “Since 2013 we’ve increased the number of fellows we have at Massey from seven to 90, with Lisa’s achievement being the jewel in the crown.”
For more information about the academy and its fellowships.