UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Carla Mulford, associate professor of English at Penn State, will give a public lecture titled "Teaching Matters" at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.
Mulford is the fourth recipient of the Malvin and Lea Bank Outstanding Teaching Award for the College of the Liberal Arts. A generous gift by Mal and Lea Bank established the annual award to promote excellence in undergraduate teaching. Mal, a 1952 Penn State graduate with a degree in arts and letters, is an accomplished tax law attorney with Thompson Hine LLP.
Mulford joined Penn State’s faculty in 1986 and teaches courses at every level of the undergraduate curriculum, from the “great traditions” courses for freshmen to the senior seminar in English. Her undergraduate students explore topics in native studies, environmental studies, Benjamin Franklin, and the American West. She encourages students to consider ethical matters and their relationship to literature and culture, and promotes a public discourse on these issues by working with students to blog about the topics they study.
She is also an accomplished scholar. Her book, "Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire," was published in June 2015 by Oxford University Press. She is the recipient of the 2012 Bibliographical Society of America’s William L. Mitchell Prize and her work has benefited from fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“Carla Mulford is among the English Department’s most versatile faculty members, diverse in her interests and teaching methods, and admired for her teaching acumen by colleagues and students alike," said Mark Morrison, professor and head of the Department of English. "She is passionate about her calling to teach, and she has inspired generations of students to be great teachers and scholars themselves.”