The Teaching Community

Teaching is a vibrant enterprise in The Department of English and Comparative Literature. Faculty, staff, and teaching fellows have amassed awards for teaching, including - among others - the William C. Friday/Class of 1986 Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Students' Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Johnston Award for Teaching Excellence, UNC System Board of Governors' Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Association of Graduate English Students Award for Excellence in Mentoring on the M.A., Level, the C.S. Herschel Course Development Award, the SITES Award for Computer-Assisted Teaching, and the Laurence Avery Award.

The department maintains its high standards of graduate student instruction through efforts such as the Teaching Literature Initiative, a collaboration which aims to develop effective course materials and pedagogy. The Peer Review Committee is an elected body of advanced Teaching Fellows who evaluate and mentor every graduate instructor in the department, visiting classrooms and mapping professional growth. Writing Program fellows are extensively trained in composition theory and praxis, a process that continues through regular coordinating group meetings.