Instructors

Jan Beneš is an assistant professor at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Ostrava. Apart from teaching writing-heavy courses in British literature, American ethnic literatures, and African American history and culture, he has also taught academic writing courses for students of STEM fields at Texas A&M University as well as the Central European Institute of Technology, for international researchers in the field of pedagogy, and Chinese students of Chinese-language pedagogy.

Angeniet Kam has taught academic skills for more than 30 years, working at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands for the past 15 years. The Delft Centre for Languages and Academic Skills is situated in the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. Together with fourteen colleagues, Angeniet teaches communicative skills all over campus, so by now she can bluff her way into building an airplane wing or doing a practical on purifying specific enzymes from E-coli bacteria. Her main teaching activities consist of lectures in report writing, academic writing and oral presenting. Angeniet holds a Master degree in Dutch language and literature, with a specialization in argumentation and speech communication. However, she teaches mainly in English these days. Currently, she is Education Fellow at Delft University of Technology, with a two-year grant to innovate academic writing practice on campus.

Agnes (Agi) Simon is a political scientist who currently works as an Evaluation Research Team Leader in the Pedagogical Competence Development Centre (CERPEK) at Masaryk University. She specialises in US foreign policy, summit diplomacy, Central European politics, and teaching and learning political science. In the past four years, she has worked as an academic developer including curriculum development and mentoring. She is particularly interested in blended and online education as well as using games, role playing and simulations for education purposes. She has taught academic writing in both the United States and Europe. Agi is regular faculty at ECPR’s Teaching and Learning Summer School. Her articles appeared in the Journal of Global Security Studies, The Journal of Transatlantic Studies, and European Political Science. Her most recent publications include “Trusting through the Moscow-Washington Hotline: A Role Theoretical Explanation of the Hotline’s Contribution to Signal Interpretation and Crisis Stability” with Eszter Simon (2020) and “Teaching and learning about foreign policy decision-making via board-gaming and reflections” (2020). She has co-edited the book Early Career Academics’ Reflections on Learning to Teach in Central Europe (2018) with Gabriela Pleschová.

Linda (Lyn) M. Steyne has been an English language teacher since 1990 and an Academic Writing instructor since 2005. She is currently based at the Department of British and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, where she also did her PhD in Linguistics with research into what constitutes academic writing in the minds of Slovak and American university students. Previously, she taught in the top International Baccalaureate Diploma programme in Slovakia for a decade preparing students for their university studies at European institutions in fields ranging from astrophysics and biochemistry to economics and psychology. She also taught at Trnava University (Slovakia) and later established the Academic English and Writing Program as well as the Writing Center at Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts, where she prepared students in their bachelor studies for graduate programmes around the world. Currently, apart from second language writing and intercultural communicative competence, Lyn’s interests lie in pre- and in-service training of English language teachers for the Slovak state school system. She is a regular workshop facilitator and plenary speaker at English language teaching conferences in the countries of central Europe and the Balkans and served as the founding chair of the Slovak Chamber of English Language Teachers (SCELT) for six years. Lyn’s skills include professional consulting, proofreading, and editing.

Eszter Timár has been an Academic Writing instructor at the Budapest-based Central European University since 2002. She has worked with students from various departments, teaching writing skills to groups, running individual consultations, and developing course material for social scientists. Because of her interest in cultural differences in academia, she has also been involved in several outreach projects in the region, as well as in Turkey and Myanmar. Prior to joining CEU, she had worked for the English Department of Eötvös Loránd University, the Bell Language School, and the College for Foreign Trade. In addition to teaching, she does editing and proofreading on a regular basis.