The Faculty of Law is extremely proud to announce that our colleague Professor Annalise Acorn has been named as a recipient of the University of Alberta's highest teaching award, the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
"Professor Acorn has been a truly exceptional teacher and mentor to generations of law students," said UAlberta Faculty of Law's Professor Steven Penney. "She is thoroughly deserving of the University's highest award for undergraduate teaching."
The award, which was instituted at the University of Alberta in 1982, was created to recognize publicly teaching excellence by full-time continuing academic staff (regardless of seniority), to publicize such excellence to the University and the wider community, to encourage the pursuit of such excellence, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement at the University of Alberta.
Interview with Professor Annalise Acorn:
Professor Acorn, how do you feel about receiving the University of Alberta's highest teaching award?
"I'm thrilled. Being nominated was completely amazing for me and I was very moved by the support I received. It's hard to know as a teacher whether you're succeeding and of course, self-deception is an occupational hazard. So a positive reality-check is very nice. "
In 2012, you were presented with the Faculty of Law's 2012 Honourable Tevie H. Miller Teaching Excellence award. What do you think that you are doing 'right'?
"My core belief is that thinking together and talking about ideas is actually the very best thing that life has to offer. I hope I'm succeeding in creating an environment where that happens. What I do is extremely simple. I ask students questions. I'm interested in their answers. I listen to what they say. I encourage them to listen to their colleagues. And because these students are amazing what comes out of that is often a very engaged intellectual community."
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
"Learning. I get an amazing education every time I go to class.
Let me just focus on Jurisprudence for a minute. This is a course called The Drama of Justice. It is about Greek and Shakespearean plays and how they have shaped our understandings of justice. Take King Lear for example. One of Shakespeare's sources was the contemporaneous case in 1604 of Brian Annesley whose unmarried daughter Cordell battled her two older sisters who were trying to have their father declared insane so they could take over his estate. The play raises very contemporary questions about what children owe their elderly parents and vice versa. So we start to talk about it and pretty soon I am blown away with these students' insights. Brittany Biollo points out that adult children owe their parents assistance with maintaining their dignity as they age. Laura McLelland makes the claim that there is a kind of asymmetry in the relationship between children and parents that inevitably leads to at least a perception of injustice. Children, she observes, always see themselves as separate entities entitled to autonomy whereas parents see their children as extensions of themselves and are more likely to assume a merged identity.
We then go on to discuss the parallels between Lear's dividing up his kingdom in Act I Scene i and a kind of corporate restructuring of a closely held company where the older generation keeps a measure of control while handing over responsibility to a younger generation. Someone suggests that what Lear needed was a good lawyer who could have help effected this transition peacefully. Michelle Terriss replies: "Lear had a good lawyer - the fool. He just didn't listen." Terriss' suggestion to read the fool as the lawyer Lear chooses to ignore opens up whole new ways of thinking both about the play and the difficulties of advising people who may (or may not) be losing their hold on sanity.
Shakespeare's standard about law is Merchant of Venice. And there are centuries of discussion of the justice issues in that play. You'd think there was nothing more to be said. But these students bring fresh eyes to it every time and come up with new insights. David Lloyd for example pointed to William Ian Miller's claim that Portia's conduct in the courtroom confirms negative stereotypes about lawyers as nitpickers. But Lloyd goes on to add that Portia also confirms equally negative stereotypes about lawyers as bullies. So true! Nick Hamilton reads Shylock's demand for a pound of Antonio's flesh as a cry for seriousness in the endless frivolity of the world of Belmont. And then Mandy Kahlmeier observes Shylock's daughter Jessica's flawed understanding of value and contrasts that with Portia who is so sophisticated in her awareness of the world of worth. I'm in awe of the richness of these observations."
What is your teaching philosophy?
"I think learning begins when students are able to start doing their own thinking. And they need to put in quite a bit of effort to get there. Then they need to take the risk of articulating their ideas. Then they need to be heard and engaged. Everything I do is about trying to make all of that happen. A dear friend of mine gave me a very nice compliment the other day. She said; 'You help people be their smartest selves.' I guess that's my teaching philosophy in a nutshell - or that is my goal. I think the key ingredients are making space for thought and being interested in what students have to say."
You were recently elected as a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, UK. What will you be working on as you take up this prestigious appointment?
"I will spend my time at All Souls completing my book Resentment and Responsibility. It's about the relationship between reason and emotion in our judgements about responsibility and fault. Peter Strawson's famous essay "Freedom and Resentment" assumes that our emotions about blame fairly reliably track rational judgements about responsibility in law - for example the requirement of mens rea. If someone harms me when they didn't have control over their actions, not only is the law not going to hold them responsible, I am not going to feel resentful. They couldn't help it. Right? This book says: maybe not. On an emotional level we often hold people responsible through resentment even though they may not have had what philosophers call agent-control. I'm trying to take a closer look at seemingly irrational strands of resentment that challenge conventional assumptions about responsibility and to analyze that in relation to recent thinking rejecting agent-control as a necessary condition of responsibility.
In the last couple of months I've had the idea to try to give this more real-world relevance by relating it to big problems like climate change. A theory that posits agent-control as a necessary condition of responsibility is a real problem if we are trying to cope with environmental damage. And at least part of the problem is that such a theory disqualifies as irrational the emotional energy of resentment about the damage and, in so doing, helps insulate actors from moral confrontation with that emotion."
Professor Acorn's students past and present speak highly and warmly of their beloved and respected professor, with many crediting her as inspiring them to stay in law school and others speaking of how her teaching transformed them not only as law students but continued to influence them into their careers:
"I cannot think of a more deserving winner than Professor Acorn. She creates a challenging and collaborative environment in her classes, encouraging students to think critically about the law. Under her careful guidance, my classmates and I became brave advocates and passionate scholars--not mere students of the law." - Manjot Parhar (3L)
"Professor Acorn is both a generous and stimulating teacher. She fosters provocative and engaging discussions with a view to challenging our notions on justice. Her classroom environment is a safe space in which students can explore and develop ideas without judgment. This was easily the best class I've taken in my law school career thus far." - Andrea Steen (3L)
"After two and a half years of law school, taking Professor Acorn's Professional Responsibility Class in my last semester was a breath of fresh air. Not only is she incredibly intelligent, she is remarkably gifted at facilitating conversation, and inspiring students to go deep into issues we would otherwise likely remain indifferent to. Professor Acorn's passionate curiosity about ethics was contagious, and I had some of the most meaningful discussions in her class over any other." - Stephanie Laskoski (3L)
"Professor Acorn's jurisprudence class has been critically important to me this year as a law student. What set professor Acorn's class apart was her teaching style, and the difference it made to how I viewed myself as a participant. For many of my peers the first year of law school was very jarring to the sense of self, and I was no different. Coming from a lifetime of high academic achievement and dropping to the middle of the pack, I lost the feeling of being unique or valuable, and have struggled with that during my time at the University of Alberta. It's not exactly a pleasant train of thought, so I am very happy to hear that the professor who has done the most to help derail it is being recognized for the difference she makes in the lives of her students.
We know today that the gender gap in the fields of math and science exists largely due to the way we teach men and women to perceive their own abilities to be successful in those areas. Self-perception being the major player in personal, academic and workplace achievement that it is, I know that none of the members of professor Acorn's jurisprudence class can thank her enough for the respect with which she treats her students. She has the amazing skill of pulling insight out of everyone that she speaks to, due in no small part to her ability to make them feel like their thoughts are worth sharing.
The brilliance of professor Acorn is that students end her classes believing that they are good enough to become lawyers, and then they are." - Michelle Terriss (3L)
"The format of the professional responsibility class was unlike any other class I have taken in law school. Rather than lecturing to her students, Professor Acorn encourages us to take the reins, to shed our inhibitions about speaking in public and to engage with the subject matter in nonlinear ways. I expect that the skills I have learned in this class will be indispensable to my future career as an advocate." - Stefan Catona (3L)
"Professor Acorn's classes are not only an exercise in critically thinking about the law, but are an opportunity for tremendous personal growth. The fact that she expected me to have an original thought about the law was both terrifying and electrifying. She dares to teach with humanity, to bring herself to her work, and has inspired me to do the same." - Mandy Kahlmeier (Class of 2014)
"Professor Acorn's class was unlike any other which I have previously taken-it was very much focused on the students learning collectively. Combining both the shared and varying life experiences and perspectives of 20(ish) students allows for a very thorough and thought-provoking analysis of legal ethical issues (and ethics more broadly). While there are rules and ethical lines which are very clear, there is also a margin for interpretation with respect to many other areas. This being the case, it is difficult to imagine comprehensive examination not involving many different perspectives-the class provided just the environment to encourage such discussion. Issues would arise based on specific rules and/or articles written on a subject then the class would expand outwards from the original single perspective to consider in a practical sense the implications for viewing/interpreting/regulating an issue in particular way. While I like to consider myself to be an open-minded person, this certainly doesn't mean I wouldn't engage in any given discussion from a particular perspective. The broad discussions in class forced me to look at issues from a perspective which, often times, I would not have even considered in the first place. This allowed me to better understand the complexities of some ethical issues and has helped to prepare me for questions and issues I may deal with in my future career." - Kris Lensink (3L)
"Professor Acorn's Drama of Justice class takes a close look at some of our most loved (and hated) literary figures and asks students what justice is and how we can tell whether or not it's been done. Professor Acorn's thought-provoking questions and constant encouragement could make an advocate out of anyone." - Eric Pentland (3L)
"Professor Acorn's Professional Responsibility seminar was one of the most challenging classes I took in law school. She facilitates a vibrant and passionate discussion on the ethics of legal practice by fostering an atmosphere of respect, critical thinking, and professionalism in the classroom. Throughout the semester, I found myself not only realizing the gravity of the ethical issues we were covering, but also coming up with creative and practical solutions to these issues. I always knew I would have a chance to be heard, critiqued, and challenged on these thoughts in class." - Simon Elzen-Hoskyn (Class of 2014)
"What I liked about Professor Acorn's Professional Responsibility course is that we not only talked about ethical issues on an abstract level, but we also discussed practical tips for negotiating challenging situations. For instance, how to resist the pressure to consume a high volume of alcohol and how to question an unethical situation in a non-threatening way. She encouraged us to form and substantiate our own opinions, to think outside the box, and to keep justice at the forefront of our minds. I know that this class will stay with me in my career as a practicing lawyer." - Fauza Mohamed (Class of 2014)
Professor Acorn is the author of Compulsory Compassion: A Critique of Restorative Justice (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004). She teaches Jurisprudence, Professional Responsibility, and Conflict of Laws.
Past recipients of the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the UAlberta Faculty of Law include Professors Mitchell McInnes (2011), Shannon O'Byrne (2002), David Percy QC (1996), Roderick Wood (2005) and Bruce Ziff (1988).