A Shakespeare scholar who has led efforts to computerize the humanities and promote gay and lesbian studies has won the Dean of Arts Award for 1998.
English Prof. Alexander Globe, a popular and respected teacher who won a Killam Teaching Prize in 1991, promotes student use of computers in a field not known for computer-aided research. He is credited as the driving force behind a $250,000 computer lab set to open in the English Dept. this spring.
Globe has also earned praise for his efforts to introduce gay and lesbian studies to UBC. A minor in Gay and Lesbian Studies will soon go before the Faculty of Arts curriculum committee after several years of advocacy by Globe and others.
In the classroom, Globe vigorously promotes verbal skills among his students, which he sees as crucial for their success after graduation.
The $5,000 Dean of Arts Award, established by an anonymous donor, is equal in value to the Killam Teaching Prize and recognizes exceptional contributions by a faculty member in teaching, research, administration and service.
The award is presented in the name of a living professor emeritus who has made a significant contribution to the faculty. This year the award will be presented by Prof. Emerita Kay Stockholder.
Stockholder is also a Shakespeare scholar and, like Globe, an advocate of human rights, especially through her work in recent years as president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
Last year, the first year in which the Dean of Arts Award was given, it went to Prof. Richard Pearson of Anthropology and Sociology in the name of Prof. Emeritus David Eberle of the same department.