Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa - Department of Sociology

Cambridge University has produced a series of films about five of this year’s Pilkington Prize winners. These films go behind the scenes to show Cambridge teaching in action as well as inviting winners to explain their passion for teaching and reveal some of their trade secrets. The films feature Lecturer in German Thought, Martin Ruehl; Physics Lecturer Lisa Jardine-Wright; Sociologist Mónica Moreno Figueroa; Zoologist Andrew Balmford; and Design Engineer James Moultrie.

Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa - Department of Sociology

While bringing a whirlwind of substantive content and new pedagogic approaches to the Department of Sociology, Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa has established the provision for teaching race and racism at Cambridge and attracts large numbers of students to her papers. Mónica is known for pushing a strong agenda for diversification of the curricula and encourages other teaching staff to follow suit.

Further to this, Mónica has put together the Race Research Cluster which brings together undergraduate and postgraduate students and is now co-hosting the research group ‘decolonizing the curriculum’ – a seminar series that has brought important conversations to the University’s teaching and learning environment.

Mónica is passionate about the development of innovative content and pedagogic strategies that help students to participate in their own learning. One example of this is the use of ‘co-listening moments’ where content discussed is reflected on individually within the lecture. Students speak to each other in pairs for equal allocated time, following a simple set of rules, giving them the opportunity to recognize the emotional dimensions involved in learning. In collaboration with designer Joe Malia, she has also developed The Colour Beads, a communication tool for generating dialogue around racism.

Mónica’s consistently outstanding student evaluations and recent commendation in the ‘supporting students’ category of the university’s Student-Led Teaching Awards shows how deeply her students value her efforts.