The Joseph R. Accinno Teaching Award
The Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award is presented annually to the faculty member who best exhibits excellence in teaching, passion and enthusiasm for learning, and genuine concern for students’ academic and personal growth. Faculty who have received tenure and are scheduled to teach during the spring semester are eligible for the award. The award program is administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Teaching Award Selection Committee (TASC). The recipient receives a cash stipend, is formally acknowledged at the College’s Academic Convocation in September, and has his or her name inscribed on a plaque that is permanently displayed in the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Teaching Award Process and Criteria
Teaching Award Recipient, 2024-25
Dr. Gizem Zencirci, Political Science
Gizem Zencirci, Ph.D., associate professor of political science and director of the Middle East Studies program, is the 2024-25 Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award recipient. The award is presented annually to the Providence College faculty member “who best exhibits excellence in teaching, passion and enthusiasm for learning, and genuine concern for students’ academic and personal growth.”
Dr. Zencirci, who has been a member of the PC faculty since 2013, has taught a wide range of courses in the Department of Political Science, as well as in the Middle East Studies and Development of Western Civilization programs. These include Middle East Politics; Globalization and the Muslim World; Middle East: Connections & Conversations; Women, Gender, Sexuality in the Middle East; Art and Revolutions in the Muslim World; Human Rights; and Comparative Revolutions.
In her teaching philosophy statement, Dr. Zencirci acknowledged that many of the topics discussed in her courses “often make students uncomfortable.” However, she said when they are approached honestly and respectfully, students “start to think about political issues from different perspectives, ask questions, and reflect critically on their assumptions.”
“I encourage my students to understand that people experience the world through different ethnic, social, economic, linguistic, and religious lenses, and emphasize that understanding this multiplicity is central to the study of politics,” she wrote. “While I try to teach acceptance of cultural differences, I also want my students to understand that certain values — freedom, equality, justice, rights — are universal values regardless of one’s cultural background.”
More about Dr. Zencirci:
- Earned her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Research interests: Islamic neoliberalism, Middle East politics, religious politics, civil society, politics of charity, welfare regimes, Islamic politics, postcolonial and decolonial studies, heritage studies, cultural studies, gender studies, ethnographic and interpretive methods, Turkey, Malaysia
- Author of The Muslim Social: Neoliberalism, Charity, and Poverty in Turkey (Syracuse University Press, 2024)
- Professional affiliations: The Civilizationism Project at Stanford University; The Islamic Intellectual Field and Political Theorizing in Turkey; the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action; the Middle East Studies Association; and the American Political Science Association
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gizem Zencirci on this well-earned honor!
Past Teaching Award Recipients
Teaching Award Selection Committee 2024-2025
Nuria Alonso-Garcia, Global Studies (Chair)
Joseph Cammarano, Political Science
Peter Costello, Philosophy
Edmund Dain, Philosophy
Adam Villa, CTE (Ex Officio)
Stephanie Filippelli, CTE
Brendan McGoldrick, Class of 2025
Colleen Dooley, Class of 2027
Patrick Morreale, Class of 2028
Center for Teaching Excellence
Feinstein Academic Center, Room 303
401.865.1340
cte@providence.edu
