Longtime CLU English professor honored

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – June 6, 2014) A longtime California Lutheran University English professor who pioneered the use of technology in the classroom has received the 2014 President’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

A committee of past honorees selected Joan Wines of Thousand Oaks for the award, which was created in 1995 to recognize professors who are held in high esteem by their peers, students and the rest of the university community. As the recipient, Wines will deliver the keynote speech to welcome new students at Opening Academic Convocation on Sept. 2.

Wines began teaching at CLU in 1976 and became a full-time faculty member in 1989. From the beginning, she has been an inspirational teacher and supportive mentor dedicated to helping students produce their best work.

Conducting and presenting instructional technology research with a CLU administrator since 1987, she was the first in both the CLU and University of Southern California English departments to integrate computers into writing instruction. She has secured numerous grants for technology as well as for faculty and program development. She also designed and directed CLU’s Center for Teaching and Learning, which helps faculty integrate technology into their courses.

While teaching her first college courses at the University of Detroit, Wines provided job training and placement services for incarcerated young adults through a Ford Foundation program and served as a substitute teacher in inner-city elementary schools. She brought her passion for helping disadvantaged youths to USC’s Neighborhood Initiative program and to CLU, where she helped start the Math Science Upward Bound program in 1992.

Wines helped launch CLU’s Writing Center and has worked extensively with international students in the center and in English courses. She served as chairwoman of the English Department from 2006 to 2013 and has been the faculty adviser for the university’s award-winning literary publication, Morning Glory, for 18 years.

She co-organized the 2008 International Aldous Huxley Symposium and has been a docent of the International Aldous Huxley Society since 2009. In addition to an extensive list of academic publications, she has authored books of poetry and written and directed children’s plays. Later this month, she will present a paper on the role of universities in global politics in St. Petersburg, Russia, and co-present with her daughter a paper on art-making in the U.S. juvenile justice system in Rome.

Wines holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in Middle English literature from the University of Detroit as well as a master’s degree and a doctorate in English from USC.