Assistant Professor Anna Lund, '07 LLB, has won both a 2019 Provost's Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Tevie. H. Miller Teaching Excellence Award. The former is a university-wide award that recognizes achievement of teaching excellence by full-time continuing academic staff within five years of their first university appointment. The latter is the Faculty of Law's highest honour for an instructor and recognizes excellence by a full-time faculty member.
Lund teaches in the areas of bankruptcy and insolvency, debtor creditor law, civil procedure and access to justice, and has developed a number of new course offerings.
She created a legal theory seminar where students study pro bono legal practice using a numerous approaches, including legal history, law and economics, and critical legal studies. For international and crossborder insolvency law, she developed a seminar in which students take part in a multiparty negotiation and mock courtroom application.
Lund uses active learning methods to keep her students engaged. She has practitioners take part in mock scenarios and accompanies her students on field trips to the courthouse to help demonstrate how legal concepts are applied in practice. She also developed games to reinforce concepts covered in class, including "Business Law Bingo" and "Snakes & Ladders: The Civil Procedure Edition."
"It is clear that you are recognized for the contributions you make on a daily basis to deliver and outstanding learning experience to students," said Provost Steven Dew in announcing Lund's award.
Lund says she was first inspired to become a teacher while studying political science at the University of Alberta.
"I wanted to be the person at the front of the room, asking exhilarating questions." she says.
"My first few years of teaching were tough, because there was such a big gap between the teacher I wanted to be and the teacher I was. To the extent that I've been able to close that gap, it's due to the support and encouragement of my mentors at the Faculty of Law, my collaborators from practice, the students who make it all worthwhile, and my friends and family."
Lund began her teaching career at Simon Fraser University in the Department of Criminology, followed by appointments at Osgoode Hall Law School and Western University's Faculty of Law. Prior to her current position, she was a sessional instructor and postdoctoral fellow at UAlberta Law.
The Tevie H. Miller Teaching Excellence Award is named in honour of the late associate chief justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, who was also a chancellor of the University of Alberta and an alumnus of the Faculty of Law.