Dean Ward

Education

Prof. Ward earned a B.S. in biology from Wheaton College (IL); working in a biochemistry lab somehow spun him into a Ph.D. program in literature at the University of Virginia, where he earned a doctorate with a dissertation on science and the novel.

Biography

Recent Activities

Prof. Ward’s most recent book project was the 2011 second edition of a textbook on reading and writing across the disciplines, written with Prof. Elizabeth Vander Lei. More recently he’s been called to administrative work, serving as English Department co-chair in 2013-14 and as academic dean for Calvin’s division of social sciences and contextual disciplines in 2014-15. He begins, in the summer of 2014, his fourth year as a member of Calvin’s Teaching and Learning Network, which works to improve the quality of instruction at Calvin. In August of 2014, he will begin to administer a Lilly Network Mentoring grant, designed to improve teaching and, particularly, teaching for Calvin’s faith and learning mission.

Favorite Books

• George Elliot, Middlemarch
• Charlotte Brontë, Villette
• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
• J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings trilogy
• Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
• Toni Morrison, Beloved

Hobbies

• Gardening
• Woodworking
• Fishkeeping
• Old man sports (racquetball—you never have to run far; golf—no running allowed)

Academic interests

• Novels
• Victorian literature
• African-American literature
• The teaching of writing
• Writing in and across the disciplines
• College teaching