Department Award Winners, 2007-08

The English department recognizes three people each spring: a graduate teacher for his or her outstanding work in the classroom, a graduate student for his or her scholarly work, and a faculty member or lecturer for his or her outstanding teaching. The 2007-08 awards went to the following people.

Michael Tomanek: Graduate Instructor. Michael started his M.A. in the fall of 2005. He has taught English 110, English 120, and for 2007-08 he was asked to teach American Literature I, a survey course covering early American literature. Michael also works in the Center for Writers.

Kristina Caton: Graduate Paper Award Winner. Kristina started her M.A. in the fall of 2006. Her award winning paper, "Unifiying Voice? Call and Response in [Jean] Toomer's Cane" examined the circular, give-and-take role of the call and response in this Harlem Renaissance novel. Caton argues that the dialectic of the "call and response" structure, while unifying the disparate parts of prose and poetry, individual and community, also simultaneously exposes fissures of experience along gendered lines.

Betsy Birmingham: The Vogel Teaching Award. Betsy joined the faculty in January of 2001 after completing her PhD at Iowa State University in December of 2000. She teaches a wide range of courses for the English department, and her Language Bias class and Grant and Proposal Writing class have become "must have" courses for undergraduate and graduate students alike. She won the College Teaching Award in 2003-04.