Award Winning Faculty and Students in the Department of Political Science

Political Science faculty and students have received Faculty of Arts Teaching Awards in multiple categories.

2026 Graduate Teaching Award Winners

This award acknowledges those graduate students who have been identified for their exceptional contributions to teaching and learning.

McKayla Kennedy (She/Her) I am a second-year MA student of the University of Alberta’s Department of Political Science, a recipient of the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship, and the VP of academics for the PSGSA. My thesis examines how colonialism has been preserved within international human rights law and multinational corporations within the mining industry. Specifically focusing on Shell PLC v. The communities of Ogoniland in their longstanding legal battle (1990-2025). I aims to find methods for decolonizing international structures such as international law and the international political economy.

Taofiki Okunola is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Olabisi Onabanjo University and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He earned an MA in International Relations from the University of Westminster, London, before beginning his doctoral studies. He has served in a range of research and teaching roles and is currently a Graduate Instructor in the Department of Political Science. His research interests include global governance, migration, statelessness, human rights and peace and conflict resolution.

2026 Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award (Early Achievement)

This award recognizes the outstanding teaching contributions of faculty members in the early stages of their careers. 

Didier Zúñiga is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre de Recherche en Éthique in Montreal (2022-2023), and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University (2020-2022). He received his PhD in Political Theory from the University of Victoria, British Columbia (2020), and was born and raised in Mexico City.  His research and teaching program is organized around the theme of ‘politics beyond the human’.

Faculty of Arts Unit Teaching Award

The intent of this award is to celebrate excellence in teaching when a group of individuals consistently work together to promote outstanding teaching and learning within the Faculty of Arts. 

Led by Mojtaba Mahdavi, the team included faculty members from Political Science, Catherine Kellogg, Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Rob Aitken, Corey Snelgrove, Fiona Nicoll and Siobhan Byrne. One MLCS faculty member, Iman Mersal and two Political Science graduate students Malik Samara and Eleyan Sawafta.  The team received the award for the course POLS 459/560: The Question of Palestine: Local, Regional and Global Dynamics in Comparative Perspectives

Mojtaba Mahdavi is Professor of Political Science and Graduate Director in that Department and is the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta. He is the author and editor of numerous works on post-Islamism, contemporary social movements and democratization in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), postrevolutionary Iran, and modern Islamic political thought.

Dr. Mahdavi’s research lies at the intersection of Critical Middle East Studies, Political Economy, Contemporary Islamic Studies, and Decolonial/Postcolonial Studies. His work is primarily driven by an interest in the socio-structural transformations shaping the lives of ordinary people and the discursive and intellectual shifts within MENA and broader Muslim contexts.

Congratulations to all the winners in Arts!