Mark West, a professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, is one of five finalists for the 2013 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence – UNC Charlotte’s top teaching honor. This year’s recipient will be named at a Sept. 20 reception; Inside UNC Charlotte is featuring each finalist in alphabetical order before the event.
Since joining the University’s English Department in 1984, West has been committed to bringing children’s literature to life for his students. He said he uses an interdisciplinary approach because it is impossible to appreciate children’s literature fully without investigating the history of childhood, child psychology and the cultural assumptions that undergird attitudes toward children’s reading material.
In presenting material to students, West noted he draws on his unique theatrical experience as a professional puppeteer to develop the performance elements involved in lecturing. He uses a variety of voices, acts out scenes from books and makes full use of the stage area in front of the lecture hall.
These theatrical efforts are not lost on his students, many of whom comment on his ability to animate literature through his passion and enthusiasm for the subject. One student wrote, “From the minute Dr. West takes the stage until his final comments about the literature – we are all spellbound….It’s obvious that children’s literature flows through his veins and is at the heart of his soul. This love of the literature passes on to his students....I learned how to become passionate for a subject….I learned that children’s literature is something that touches each of us.... As a future educator, I look to Dr. West as an inspiration.”
West’s commitment to teaching children’s literature extends beyond the classroom. In addition to publishing numerous scholarly and pedagogical essays, he helped to establish children’s literature at UNC Charlotte as a nationally recognized area of expertise.
An extraordinarily selfless campus citizen, West manages a heavy administrative and governance commitment through the years while never sacrificing his primary interests as a scholar and teacher. He served as associate dean for general education in the former College of Arts and Sciences, director of the American Studies Program, director of the master’s program in liberal studies, interim chair of the Department of Art and Art History, graduate coordinator of the English master’s program and associate dean for student services in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Currently, he is interim chair of the English Department.
Cy Knoblauch, former chair of English, stated that Mark “is the exemplar of a scholar-teacher whose efforts have enriched us all, not only colleagues and students, but also the many citizens of Charlotte.”
He energetically supports the Children’s Theatre, organized and actively participated in Novello’s Festival of Reading, reads to students at ImaginOn and other Charlotte-Mecklenburg libraries, led a seminar for the Charlotte Teachers Institute and organized last year’s Seuss-a-Thon in support of the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day.
In the 1930s, West’s “Grandpa Dave” attempted to invent a perpetual motion machine, building several contraptions he hoped would continue moving forever; his success was impeded by the law of thermodynamics: a self-sufficient machine cannot expend more energy than it creates.
Two generations later, West has solved the energy problem that stymied his grandfather. He has discovered that the energy he expends while teaching is more than matched by the energy he receives from his students.
Read about other 2013 finalists profiled in Inside UNC Charlotte - Ted Amato, Kimberly Buch, John David Smith and Hui-Kuan “Alice” Tseng.