Jeffrey Kennedy wins 2024 Durnford Award
The Faculty of Law is pleased to announce that Jeffrey Kennedy has received the 2024 John W. Durnford Award for Teaching Excellence.
Named in honour of the late professor and former dean John W. Durnford (BCL'52), and conferred by students, this annual award recognizes a law professor’s exceptional pedagogy.
“Prof. Kennedy has provided us with - without a doubt - the most engaging, enjoyable teaching experience I've had in law school, and probably even my entire post-secondary career,” one student nomination lauded.
Jeff Kennedy, DCL’20, joined McGill Law as an assistant professor in fall 2023. His core research interests are in criminal law and theory, with a particular focus on the public and political dimensions of criminal justice. He was previously a senior lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London (2018-2023), where he also served as director of its Criminal Justice Centre.
As part of the Prison Law class he offered this year, Professor Kennedy organized two prison visits, allowing students to spend a day speaking with prisoners. The experience left a deep impression on the class and was highlighted in several student nominations, with one student describing it as “profound, inspiring, and energizing.”
“Professor Kennedy toed a singularly effective line in presenting the foundations of prison law and policy on one hand, and a critical reform/abolition lens on the other,” another student wrote. “He used unique pedagogical means to urge us to visualize and deconstruct prisons in new ways.”
“Amongst my colleagues, he is universally considered to be an exceptional professor, whose classes are extremely popular due to his infectious passion for everything he teaches,” a third student concluded.
“I’m proud to see such a remarkable commitment to pedagogical excellence – one of our Faculty’s core values – in one of our newest colleagues,” said Dean Robert Leckey, Ad E. “I look forward to seeing how Professor Kennedy’s strong community engagement will continue to create enriching experiential learning opportunities for our students.”
