Dec. 5, 2002
Miller Named CASE DC Professor of the Year
English and American Studies Professor Becomes Fourth
GW Faculty Member to Earn Honor
By Greg
Licamele
James Miller suspects that men and women become professors because they
fell in love with the teachers who taught and inspired them. For Miller,
these effective teachers provided enriching experiences in literature
propelling him to academia. Now, this humble man from Provdence, RI,
has won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)
District of Columbia Professor of the Year Award.
The professor of English and American studies says he’s honored
to be recognized for his teaching and scholarship, adding with a hearty
laugh that the award “sounds formidable.”
Miller joins three of his Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS)
colleagues who previously received the DC Professor of the Year Award:
Associate Professor of Physics Gerald Feldman in 2000; Benjamin Banneker
Professor of American Civilization and History James O. Horton, in 1996;
and Professor of Media and Public Affairs Jarol Manheim in 1995.
“I can’t imagine anyone more deserving of this award than
Jim,” says William Frawley, CCAS dean. “He’s an accomplished
and dedicated faculty member of CCAS and a model to us all. He continues
the astonishing record of Columbian College faculty in the CASE competition.”
Arriving at GW in 1998, Miller quickly asserted himself as a leader
in African American Studies, building upon his work as a professor at
the University of South Carolina at Columbia and at Trinity College
in Hartford, CT. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown University
and a PhD from SUNY Buffalo.
“As an African Americanist, I’m always paying close attention
to issues of race, the construction of race, race in American culture,”
Miller says. “So I think a lot of what I do really works off of
that set of preoccupations. I’m also interested and deeply concerned
with the problem of historical consciousness, how it informs American
writing, and the ways in which race has been constructed and deployed
by American writers and artists over time.”
Miller explains that Toni Morrison’s essay, “Unspeakable Things
Unspoken,” crystallizes his areas of interest because she argues
that race is always present in American culture, even when it’s
not visible in literary or cultural texts.
“I think Morrison’s essay captures for many of us who are
African American the way race has always functioned as a constant,”
Miller says. “It shows how racial obsessions shape and define American
thought and behavior, and the ways in which racial attitudes and racial
rhetoric have changed over time.”
Miller taught English 73 this semester, which is a survey course that
examines the development of African American writing from its colonial
beginnings through the turn of the 20th century. He also taught English
169, “Ethnicity and Place in American Literature,” which focuses
on the interrelationships among ethnic consciousness, sense of place,
and the 20th-century American literary production.
Faye Moskowitz, associate professor of English and department chair,
works in the office next to Miller’s and she hears the impact and
influence Miller has on his students.
“I am very much aware of how many students and faculty members
find their way to his door,” Moskowitz says. “They come for
information, for advice, and sometimes just for the chance to engage
in lively conversation with a wise and ‘hip’ guy. His student
evaluations are almost as much fun to read as his classes surely are.”
Moskowitz says one student recently wrote: “Professor Miller is
an excellent instructor; he investigates texts like a detective, using
everything at his disposal, especially his students’ own understanding,
to illuminate meaning and establish interpretation.”
Next semester, Miller will continue his exploration of race by teaching
a class that incorporates August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s
Black Bottom.”
“It is a great example of the cluster of concerns — the very
complicated, human multidimensional play that uses music and the music
industry as a way of really highlighting how race shapes character,
behavior, and thought.”
With his successful record as an effective and engaging professor, he
just might be that inspirational professor for one of his students —
the way his teachers inspired him.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
