Penn State Hazleton
Dr. Price receives Atherton Award
(PSU-UR)
Dr. R. Alan Price, associate professor of
English at the Penn State Hazleton Campus, is
one of five Penn State faculty members who
received the prestigious George W. Atherton
Award for Excellence in Teaching at cere
monies held April 7 at University Park.
Established in 1989, the Atherton
Award honors excellence in teaching
performance at the undergraduate
level.
This is the latest in a series of
awards that have been bestowed
upon Dr. Price in his distinguished
career with Penn State. Since joining
Penn State in 1966, he was twice
named Teacher of the Year by the
Penn State Hazleton Campus student
body.
In 1984, he was chosen by Penn
State to represent the University in a
series of four Master Seminars in
teaching held at Buchnell University.
In March of this year, Dr. Price was
one of two Penn State professors to
attend the Summer Academy for the
Advancement of College Teaching.
This week-long program, sponsored
by the State System of Higher Educa
tion and the Faculty Professional
Development Council, is dedicated to
the enhancement of teaching at all
levels.
Price’s expertise and research are
in the fields of American literature and
social history during the first quarter
of the 20th century, and especially the
literature produced by American
women authors writing during World
War I.
He has done extensive research
into the papers and writings of Ameri
can authors Edith Wharton and
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and their
work with the Americcan Relief Fund
in France during World War I. Dr.
Price was able to pursue that research
in the rare books collections of the
libraries at Yale, Princeton and Col-
umbia universities, as well as in
France, at Nanterre University. That
research was funded in part by Penn
State as well as through grants from
the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
His research and articles have
appeared in numerous publications
and been presented at academic
organizations, including the Modem
Language Association, the Speech
Communication Association, and the
American Studies Association.
In June 1991, Price will convene an
international round-table at the Inter
national Literary Conference in Paris,
exploring the works of Edith Wharton.
The roundtable will include scholars
from the U.S., Japan, Italy and
France, who will discuss her writings
and how they influenced the literature
of those various countries. Dr. Price is
taking the lead in putting together a
book of essays that will be produced
as a result of the conference; the
Oxford University Press is expected to
publish the work.
Immediately prior to the Inter
national Literary Conference, Price will
visit the Harvard University's Center
for Renaissance Studies in Florence,
Italy, reading the more than 600
letters exchanged between art his
torian, Bernard Berenson, and Edith
Wharton during World War I.
Dr. Price will also produce a piece
entitled “Edith Wharton at War With
the American Red Cross,’’ that will
discuss how a number of women’s
organizations were taken over by the
federal government during World War
I, often with less than satisfactory
results.
He is writing a chapter in a book
being produced by a Penn State
Hazleton Campus colleague, Dr.
Michael Santulli. Dr. Santulli’s book,
“Kaleidoscope,’’ will be an introduc
tion to a number of art forms-jazz, art,
literature. Dr. Price’s contribution to
this book will be a chapter on major
literary forms and terms.
His research and activities during
1991 are, he hopes, a prelude to the
research that he hopes to undertake
during a sabbatical in 1992-93, when
his research will take him to universit
ies here and abroad to continue study
into the literature produced by Ameri
can women during the early 20th
century.
Price is also an active participant in
various campus committees. He has
been secretary of the Faculty General
Assembly, and currently serves on the
Campus Faculty Lecture Series,
Tenure and Promotion, and Campus
Scholars Committees; in the past, he
chaired the Sabbatical Leave Commit
tee for the Penn State Commonwealth
Educational System. In addition to his
regular teaching assignments, he also
teaches a class in advanced writing.
Price holds degrees in English
from Eariham College in Indiana and
Penn State; his Ph.D. in English was
earned at the University of Rochester.
When speaking of Dr. Price and
his teaching style that earned him the
Atherton Award, a colleague observes,
“Dr. Price is always well organized,
interesting and informative. In lecture,
he successfully intersperses personal
anecdotes with professional scholar
ship, so that students identify with the
topic. In discussion, he is adept at
turning negative statements into posit
ive take-off points.”
Price says of his teaching philoso
phy that “if the teaching of essential
writing and thinking skills has gone
well, then those skills should feel so
natural to the students that they
cannot remember being without
them.”
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