Katrien Vanpee Receives 2024 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award
In her Arabic language and literature courses, Dr. Katrien Vanpee of the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies excites and inspires her students to challenge themselves intellectually, while being kind when it comes to learning through questions and mistakes. Her willingness to work with students individually to aid their academic success has left a lasting impression on many. Vanpee’s commitment to education and her attentiveness towards students earned her the 2024 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, which recognizes non-tenure track instructors who show unwavering passion and dedication to teaching.
A People- and Community-focused Curriculum
Vanpee coordinates the Arabic language program, teaching students from all levels in beginning (ARAB 1101-1102), intermediate (ARAB 3101-3102), and advanced Arabic (ARAB 5101-5102). She is also an expert in designing curriculum, having directed the Arabic language program since fall 2014. She has also developed and taught a number of literature courses, which include Culture and Society of the Arabian Peninsula (AMES 3868) and The Politics of Arabic Poetry (AMES 3832), both in English, and Arabic Environmental Literature (ARAB 5040), which studies Arabic texts and is taught entirely in Arabic. Her literature classes examine works that “help grapple with some of the pressing issues of our time in and beyond the classroom,” centering conversations around important subjects like environmental advocacy and activism, the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion, health care systems, minority rights, and human rights.
In Vanpee’s language courses, her three core objectives are for students to improve language proficiency, increase awareness of diverse cultures, and develop the skills necessary to become critical thinkers and reflective learners. Her classes feature a lot of collaborative work so that students can be open to everyone’s diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Group work takes the form of activities like classroom surveys, conversations about learning strategies, information gap activities, building vocabulary sets, classroom discussions and debates, and team competitions. These activities cultivate students’ independent learning skills and give them a chance to learn from each other.
“Teaching is a people-first profession,” Vanpee shares. “The fact that our students, as adults, bring their full complexity to the table, enables us, as instructors, to learn and grow a great deal as well. This is an important part of what keeps this profession inspiring and exciting to me.”
Vanpee also gives students the opportunity to apply their learned skills meaningfully in community-based projects, getting experience in the types of work they might do in the real world. These projects also make a difference locally. For example, in spring 2020 her advanced Arabic class made Arabic subtitles for an educational video on groundwater use by Anoka County, and in fall 2022 her intermediate Arabic class made a digital story map of Arab communities in the Middle East.
“The class explored linguistic and cultural practices of those Middle Eastern communities that don’t tend to appear much—or at all!—in Arabic textbooks,” she says. “The students themselves selected the resources and wrote the narratives for their public resource, turning their own learning into an opportunity for others to learn.”
Putting Students First
On top of being an exceptional educator, Vanpee goes above and beyond by encouraging students to challenge themselves academically while supporting learning in any way possible. Undergraduate Amina Hasan recalls how supportive Vanpee was when Hasan took the Arabic placement test with her in summer 2022. Hasan was nervous on exam day, but Vanpee was “very welcoming and pleasant and tried to lessen [her] anxiety.” When Hasan got her results back, she was surprised when Vanpee suggested that she should take the advanced Arabic environmental literature course.
“I hadn’t taken any Arabic classes since second grade and firmly believed I wasn’t ready for an advanced class,” Hasan explains. “Nevertheless, Prof. Vanpee was unwavering in her support and insisted that not only was I prepared to take this class but also absolutely capable of excelling. She assured me that my exam essay attested to my advanced level and said I was always welcome to meet with her if I needed help or wanted to review grammar.”
Vanpee is also very prepared to help students when personal circumstances make completing schoolwork more difficult. She has trained as a University Mental Health Advocate since 2019 and has worked with the CARE Program and Student Counseling Services to connect students with resources. She also initiated listening sessions in spring 2023 to implement course accommodations for Ramadan. The care and attention she shows toward individual students has been meaningful to many.
Alum Morgan Koski (BA ‘23, Asian & Middle Eastern studies) shares how Vanpee supported her studies in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Koski was a non-traditional student, balancing her degree with military obligations as a non-commissioned officer in the Minnesota National Guard. COVID-19 affected Koski and her family’s health, and she became the primary contact for her mother, whose health worsened considerably after contracting the virus. With so many responsibilities, it was difficult for Koski to focus on school and she often had to miss class. Vanpee worked closely with her to make schoolwork more manageable, accommodating attendance and making assignment deadlines more flexible.
“Of all my professors, Dr. Vanpee was one of the most understanding and supportive and someone I could go to when struggling with the material or, more generally, with life,” Koski says.
Koski took a gap year between 2020 and ‘21, returning in 2022 to finish her degree. Vanpee not only remembered her but welcomed her back as if she never left, leaving Koski incredibly touched. Vanpee’s support played a major role in Koski’s academic success. She made the Dean’s List in her last three semesters and graduated in spring 2023. She continues to use what she has learned since graduation as an immigration case manager. Vanpee’s impact on Koski will carry on with her into the future.
“My time as her student instilled in me a lifelong love for learning that has since become my raison d’être and nurtured in me a passionate drive for continual self-improvement. I was but one of many of her students over the years, yet she continually treated me with the empathy, dedication, and care of a personal mentor even after several years away,” says Koski. “I cannot thank her enough for helping me through some of the most sorrowful and painful periods of my life while guiding me towards a vision of excellence I could not yet see for myself.”
Department Recognition
Vanpee’s impressive contributions to the Arabic language program, along with her thoughtful approach to teaching and conscientiousness toward supporting students, have made countless lasting impressions.
“Not only does Dr. Vanpee direct the Arabic language program and excel at teaching Arabic, as her [student evaluations] and student support letters show, she also teaches essential upper-division Arabic literature courses in English, advanced Arabic reading courses, and courses in language pedagogy. All the while, she remains proactively attentive to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as social justice, in the classroom and program,” says Travis Workman, chair of the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies.
Vanpee’s recognition for the Undergraduate Teaching Award is well-deserved for her consistent excellence over the years as a director, educator, community advocate, and mentor.
This story was written by Lily Zenner, an undergraduate student in CLA.
