News
David Paddy Wins Professor of the Year Award
November 18 , 2006 Press Release
David Paddy, associate professor of English language and literature at Whittier College, has been honored as California’s 2006 Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Paddy is one of 45 winners selected from 43 states, Guam and the District of Columbia for the U.S. Professors of the Year program, conceived to award extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching and scholarship and to increase awareness of the importance of undergraduate instruction. Additionally, the award gives institutions an opportunity to celebrate excellence and provide models for faculty and students.
This is the first time a Whittier College professor has earned the title from this national agency, though Paddy himself has previously been honored for his unique classroom style. In 2005, he received the College’s own teaching prize, the Harry Nerhood Award for Teaching Excellence. Paddy has been a member of the Whittier English department faculty since 1997.
Much of Paddy’s early scholarship focused on Black British literature, though he now devotes his research to the topic of identity in Welsh literature and language, placing it in a larger context of colonization, imperialism, and loss of culture. Like many professors at the College, Paddy teaches a variety of classes including modern and contemporary British literature, as well as paired courses with other instructors.
In his nominee’s statement to CASE, Paddy refers to learning as a “risky business” and admits his classes can be difficult for those most resistant to altering their perspectives and tinkering with the norm. Ultimately, though, his goal is to challenge his student—and himself—to bravely dive headfirst into learning and teaching.
“I am interested in finding ways to capture students’ interest and enhance their learning without, I hope, resorting to a form of edu-tainment aimed at a generation with ADHD,” he explains in his statement. “In part, I am interested in the performative aspect of teaching, in ways of becoming the material. But this is primarily because I am interested in the interactive process that gets students to take control of their own learning…I feel most alive in the classroom when I am doing something novel, when I am exploring ideas in action and motion. In this way, what I do in the classroom stems as much from the discourses of critical pedagogy as it does from avant-garde theater.”
“As an English teacher,” he continues, “I want students to see literature as a living, shouting thing.”
The goal of the U.S. Professors of the Year Program is to increase awareness of the importance of undergraduate instruction. In recognizing faculty members for their achievements as teachers, the award gives institutions an opportunity to celebrate excellence and provide models for faculty and students.
The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education is an organization that supports advancement professionals in academia. CASE’s members include more than 3,000 colleges, universities, elementary and secondary schools in 54 countries. The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has an office in London.
