Academic Year 2013-2014: Monika Baár

October 19, 2014

CEU honors Dr. Monika Baár, Rosalind Franklin Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Groningen, with the European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities

The third annual European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities was presented to Dr. Monika Baár. The award was initiated by CEU in 2011 as a way of calling attention to the importance of excellent teaching as well as research within European higher education. Baár is the first graduate of CEU to receive this award (MA in History, 1995). She also is the first recipient of the Diener Prize, which accompanies the award. This annual prize is made possible by a generous gift from Steven and Linda Diener in memory of Ilona Diener.

Dr. Baár earned her doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford in 2002, and subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and at the University of Essex. She joined the Department of History at University of Groningen in 2009.

Baár's teaching is richly informed by her research, which focuses on modern history with particular attention to Central and Eastern Europe and more recently on the history of animals and disability studies. She has been acknowledged for demonstrating "that innovation and excellence can go hand in hand" in both teaching and research, and she has introduced interdisciplinary and team teaching into her work. Read more.