The Social Sciences Division’s Teaching Excellence Awards celebrate the exceptional contributions to education by colleagues across the Division. Its 2025 recipients include four Oxford Internet Institute (OII) academics, recognised for their remarkable commitment and innovative teaching practices.
“I continue to be immensely proud of the entire teaching team at the OII, who work tirelessly to foster academic development, provide guidance and support, and create a positive, innovative and inclusive learning environment,” said Professor Victoria Nash, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute.
“It is especially rewarding to see these four colleagues rightly recognised for the outstanding calibre of their teaching and supervision and I thank them for their hard work and commitment to excellent education across our postgraduate programmes.”
Read on to learn more about each award winner from the department:
Departmental Research Lecturer
Dr Adam Mahdi is recognised for his innovative and excellent teaching and supervision in the fields of machine learning and applied analytical statistics. His sustained commitment to innovation, efforts to develop advanced research groups, and integration of faculty and student life at the OII resulted in a full endorsement by the Social Science Division for this award.
Departmental Research Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Government, and Policy
Dr Ana Valdivia has been awarded the Teaching Excellence Award for the quality of her teaching and supervision in the field of algorithmic fairness and accountability and the sustainability of AI. Her strong commitment to teaching a challenging subject, adoption of a well-balanced approach, and unwavering support of students and newer teachers in the department merits recognition from the Social Science Division.
Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow
Professor Kathryn Eccles has received a Teaching Excellence Award for her teaching and supervision in the field of cultural analytics. Her dedication and care for her students, and integration of participatory elements into her teaching style, has led to the Committee’s recognition and conferral of this award.
Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow
Professor Greg Taylor is recognised for his excellent teaching and supervision in the field of internet economics. His care, sustained passion, dedication and support for students under difficult circumstances, coupled with his collegiate contributions to local and university level AI initiatives, has culminated in this recognition from the Social Sciences Division.
The winners will be honoured at the divisional Teaching Excellence Awards on Tuesday 17th June, and will each receive a recognition payment. Congratulations to the OII academics and all the award winners across the Social Sciences Division.
Read more about the awards here.
Departmental Research Lecturer
Adam Mahdi’s research focuses on digital health and application of machine learning in social sciences. He is the director of the UKRI-funded OxCOVID19 Project and a fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.
Lecturer in AI, Government & Policy
Ana Valdivia is an interdisciplinary scholar interested in the sociotechnical aspects and technopolitics of AI. Her research explores the environmental impacts of AI by combining both computational and ethnographic methodologies.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Kathryn Eccles has research interests in the impact of new technologies on Humanities scholarship, and the re-organisation of cultural heritage and higher education in the digital world.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Greg Taylor's research focuses on the economics of competition policy and regulation for digital and technology markets.
Media narratives on migration are perceived to have a significant impact on policy decisions and public attitudes toward migration. The project applies tools and methods to enable practitioners to make more effective policy decisions.
This programme supports research on AI, Government and Policy.
The emergence of AI image generation tools raises questions about their impact on creative professionals. This project seeks to work with professional photographers to explore the impact of this technology on their occupational legitimacy.
