Mohannad Abusarah is a PhD candidate in the Department for the Study of Religion, working on the development of Islamic thought and social dynamics in 19th- and early 20th-century Palestine. He investigates Islamic thought in relation to European dominance in the region and its interactions with Western thought.
For his contributions to UTM's History of Religions program, he recently received the UTM Cleo Leland Boyd Teaching Excellence Award for Sessional Instructors. This award is granted by UTM’s Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean and recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching at UTM.
This is Abusarah's second recognition for outstanding teaching: last semester, he received from UTM’s Department of Historical Studies the teaching award recognizing outstanding contributions by a sessional instructor, for his work on the fourth-year seminar course, RLG 453, “Researching Islam: Entering the World of Scholarly Investigation.”
He was also awarded the 2025-2026 Vivienne Poy Chancellor's Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, a prestigious award made on the basis of academic merit and financial considerations. To add to our 50th anniversary celebrations, his achievement is additionally notable for being the first time in the fellowship's 25-year history that the award has been made to a DSR student.
We met with Mohannad Abusarah to talk about his experiences and to find out what has influenced him on his teaching path to date. We began by asking him to describe what has most informed his approach to teaching. “For me,” he says, “an important part of teaching is the opportunity to learn, too – so I have generally aimed to TA for courses that I was going to learn from as well. Among many other professors, two in particular have really inspired me in terms of their teaching styles: Ken Derry [UTM Historical Studies] and Walid Saleh [St George campus, Department for the Study of Religion].
“They both excel at engaging students and making the assignments and lectures effective. Ken communicates so well, closing with ease the gap that can arise from the inherent power dynamic between teacher and student. His relationship with students is outstanding, he’s very open to discussion, and his assignments are creative and engaging."
"Walid is an exceptionally good storyteller who uses narrative to explain and simplify complex ideas. Incorporating details into a digestible story connects the dots in historical studies, showing how dimensions like environment, technology, and economic factors all play a role.”
Mohannad is a skilled and creative educator, a powerfully versatile scholar, and a charismatic educator. He has devoted careful and sustained attention to the development of his teaching in the fields of religion and history, and his classroom practice demonstrates experience across a multidisciplinary range of subjects, making him a uniquely adaptable and engaging instructor.
— From the nomination for the Cleo Leland Boyd UTM Teaching Excellence Award for Sessional Instructor
Some students take courses like “Researching Islam: Entering the World of Scholarly Investigation" as an elective so they may come from the so-called ‘hard sciences,’ or from philosophy or political science, say – a whole spectrum. A truly effective teacher connects course topics to these different disciplines, to help students build a bridge between the material and their own areas of study, which is crucial for meaningful learning.
In developing his own teaching style for this course, Abusarah considered two primary factors. Firstly, to start from where the students are, by asking questions, doing surveys and facilitating initial discussions. Knowing where they are allows him to make analogies with things that the students already know about, to form what can be described as a ‘knowledge bridge.’ The second layer is to enable students to be in the position of actual researchers. The project Abusarah assigns students to do “is not simply a paper they write and then move on,” he says. “The main assignment is to write a graduate-level research project proposal. Each student picks a topic that has not been studied before or that has not been studied from a specific angle. To know what topic to write about, students first do a literature review of the topic, specify the method and theory they are going to use, and articulate why the project is important. It's like a longer version of the proposal that applicants put together for graduate admission."
To further illustrate how academic research is a journey, the course adopted conference-style presentations. "Students learn the process of how this kind of work is created: you present your work, receive feedback from your colleagues, incorporate accordingly and then submit the work.”
This not only encourages discussion but also enriches the understanding that research is a dynamic process, evolving in a context of feedback and discussion. “I was thrilled to see that the semester-long project revealed the potential of students,” Abusarah notes, “I was impressed by the quality of the students’ work and their creativity. One proposed topic, for example, was to study female Muslim models on Instagram and their conceptualization of modesty in that context. The students’ ideas show a lot of variety and imagination.”
[Mohannad] was always. open, approachable, and supportive, which made the learning environment comfortable and academically stimulating. I felt encouraged to grow and participate at my own pace, which was important for me. Overall, this was a very enjoyable course.
— Student feedback, "Researching Islam: Entering the World of Scholarly Investigation"
Since not all students are going into academia, that raises the question of what the applicability of this approach might be in other kinds of professional lives. For this course specifically, Abusarah notes that “the course aimed also to show them the different ways one can look at Islam and Muslims, that Islamic studies is not only about textual studies of the Quran and Hadith. It extends to the Muslims themselves, what they do, their practices, the complexity and diversity of Muslim society.”
Asking someone to consider which areas of a topic remain understudied has a broader utility, too. “It shows them that, whether in the scholarly or the general sphere, the world is not solely comprised of known information or information simply waiting to be found: part of research is the creation of knowledge that did not exist previously. And that also involves creating novel ways to look at things.”
The most satisfying aspect of teaching for Abusarah is seeing students mature into what they’re studying, to see them, in the span of a 12-week course, develop a level of conceptual analysis that they did not have before. “Ultimately, the best part for me is to see them outgrowing the level of discussion of the first few weeks and and witnessing their development by the end of the semester—that means we have both succeeded."
“It is a responsibility and also a privilege to accompany people on the journey as they grasp new connections and gain new understanding. For me, enabling that process is the true reward of teaching.”
Thank you for making my last semester at the University of Toronto a joyful and memorable experience.
— Student feedback, "Researching Islam: Entering the World of Scholarly Investigation"