By: Dena Pruett

Two Department of English faculty members are being recognized for their commitment to excellence in teaching and composition this year.

Core Teaching Award

Assistant Professor Joseph Wood is this year’s winner of the Core Teaching Award. This award was established by a community advisory committee years ago as a way to honor excellent classroom instruction in 100- and 200-level courses. Wood has taught a wide variety of courses and is especially gifted at creating a dynamic discussion environment.

Wood is the author of four books and five chapbooks of poetry, which include YOU. (Etruscan, 2015) and Broken Cage (Brooklyn Arts, 2014; finalist for 2013 National Poetry Series). His work has appeared widely, in journals such as Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, North American Review, and Verse Daily, among others. At UAB, he teaches world literature, creative writing, and composition.

The Walt Mayfield Adjunct Teaching Award

This year’s winner of the The Walt Mayfield Adjunct Teaching Award is Sally Anne Perz. Much like the namesake of the award, Perz is a positive and encouraging teacher. She currently teaches EH 102 and tutors in the University Writing Center.

Perz recently graduated from UAB with a M.A. in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition. She hopes to continue her project on the rhetoric of oppression and exclusion. Though she has a lifelong passion for literature, she specifically chose rhetoric to focus her studies on anti-racist pedagogy and designing anti-racist curricula.