Dragana Obradović recognized as one of Ontario's best teachers

November 8, 2021 by Sean McNeely - A&S News

Continually leading classes that create “a synergy between texts and students,” a professor from the Faculty of Arts & Science has just received one of the province’s highest teaching honours.  

Dragana Obradović, an associate professor in the Faculty of Science’s Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, was recently named one of Ontario’s most outstanding university teachers for 2020-2021 by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA).  

OCUFA represents 17,000 professors and academic librarians in 30 faculty associations across Ontario. 

“Dragana Obradovic’s vibrancy and creativity create a classroom that is welcoming, thought-provoking and engaging,” said Edmund Pries, chair of OCUFA’s award committee and an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. “Her teaching style fosters an intellectually stimulating environment that connects the study of the structure of language to its social and political usage.” 

“My colleagues and I were thrilled to learn of Dragana’s teaching award,” says Taras Koznarsky, a professor Ukrainian literature and the department’s interim chair. “We certainly knew that Dragana is a star teacher, but it’s wonderful to see her recognized in this way. Her intimate knowledge of Slavic cultures and the Balkans — an area known for its traumatic recent and distant past — showcases her talents as a keen and nuanced critical thinker.” 

Thousands of faculty are eligible for this award and I remember feeling so much gratitude for the nomination itself. It was a huge investment of time on the part of my faculty colleagues, and they were clearly interested in putting in that work for me. The award itself is the icing on the cake. 

“Thousands of faculty are eligible for this award and I remember feeling so much gratitude for the nomination itself,” says Obradović “It was a huge investment of time on the part of my faculty colleagues, and they were clearly interested in putting in that work for me. 

“The award itself is the icing on the cake.” 

Obradović first came to the department in 2009, just months after defending her dissertation. 

“It was my first job,” she says. “And it’s the only permanent job I've held. I was quite young, and I came from London. I never, ever considered moving to Canada. But it was just such an exciting adventure. And I stayed, which is a reflection of the investment of the University and a reflection of the home I made in the department.” 

Within that department, Obradović has accomplished much, essentially redesigning the South Slavic program.  

Early in her career, she was able to take students on international trips to Serbia and Bosnia.  

“I think a lot of faculty don't get to travel with their students,” she says. “And so of course, those trips are going to be really memorable. You forge a particular relationship with students intellectually on those trips that you don't necessarily have the opportunity for on campus.” 

As well, in those early years, Obradović was given the chance to teach subjects she didn’t expect to teach with courses in language, literature, cinema and cultural history.  

Now that I'm teaching in person again, I realized how much I missed it. Maybe we all took for granted, before COVID-19, the fact that you are in a space where there is a collective experience, there's collective listening and not just of me, but of each other.

“I felt like I was going through my PhD again because there was a lot of ground to cover,” she says. “But at the same time, when I think about all the areas of knowledge I've acquired, that's been really gratifying.” 

Alongside classes in literature and cultural history, Obradović teaches Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) as one language — an approach that required single-handedly creating teaching materials from scratch because no textbooks existed for such a course. And she is ever mindful of that fact that many of her students were born after the Balkan Wars, and how her South Slavic program should reflect how the breakup of Yugoslavia changed the regional dynamic. 

Dragana Obradović and Christina Kramer in winter coats in a field full of fall leaves
Dragana Obradovic — along with her colleague, Professor Christina Kramer, created “Lavinian” — a fictional Slavic language created solely for the play Butcher by Nicolas Billion, an award-winning playwright, that premiered in Alberta in 2014.  

Her command of language also led her to the world of theatre. Obradovic — along with her colleague, Professor Christina Kramer, created “Lavinian” — a fictional Slavic language created solely for the play Butcher by Nicolas Billion, an award-winning playwright, that premiered in Alberta in 2014.  

“His play dealt with issues of transitional justice, trauma and genocide, so it was heavy hitting,” says Obradović. “He was really interested in exploring what happens in societies after war is over and after the international criminal court system packs up and leaves fundamental traumas unexplored.”  

But Billion was worried about the play being set in a specific country, so while he wanted to make the play authentic, it had to take place in a fictional location.  

“He wanted the language to sound like it could be real Slavic language, but not comprehensible,” says Obradović. So she and Kramer created a 500-word vocabulary for Lavinian that was used in the play’s script. 

“It was such an important project for us because we were invested in all of the issues that the play raised. It was the experience of lifetime.” 

Though grateful for the OCUFA and other teaching awards, the real reward for Obradović remains the magic that happens in the classroom when she and her students are totally engrossed in the works they are studying. 

She knows her students are sometimes tired and coping with the stresses of deadlines, assignments, exams and maintaining GPAs.  

“And then somehow we enter this environment where we've decided that it's worth our time to talk about literature. It’s two hours of dedicated time where very little exists other than the book we’re reading.” 

She also never tires of witnessing “when a student is receptive, and treats the material in the spirit of self-actualization, when it's for their soul and for their mind. Those are my most gratifying moments.” 

And with in-person classes returning to campus, she has a renewed passion for seeing students’ energy and reactions to learning.  

“Now that I'm teaching in person again, I realized how much I missed it. Maybe we all took for granted, before COVID-19, the fact that you are in a space where there is a collective experience, there's collective listening and not just of me, but of each other.” 

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