English Professor Gary Harrison is the 2008 Presidential Teaching Fellow, the highest teaching honor UNM bestows. The Outstanding Teachers of the Year are Catherine “Kate” Krause and Gregory Martin.

Harrison said the most formative experience in his teaching career came when he had the opportunity to teach an innovative two‐semester course in World Literature with four seasoned, creative colleagues, Paul Davis, Patricia Clark Smith, David Johnson and Joseph Zavadil.

As part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, they developed what is now the survey of world literatures sequence. The course encompasses a diversified study of the world’s literature for students in an increasingly global culture, including key works from Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African, Arabic, Persian and Latin American writers.

Harrison will use the two‐year fellowship to do curriculum development and assist departments in developing assessments of student outcomes. He is also interested in exploring ways to develop e‐portfolios for students to electronically store and document their writing and multimedia projects. E‐portfolios could be used as electronic resumes and accessed by employers who want examples of students’ work. (more…)