Homan named UF Teacher-Scholar of the Year

April 9, 2014

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — English professor Sidney R. Homan has been awarded the University of Florida’s Teacher-Scholar of the Year award for 2013-2014. Originating in 1960, it is UF’s most prestigious and oldest faculty award. It offers an honorarium of $6,000 in addition to other appropriate recognition. In making the award, the Award Committee selects a faculty member who demonstrates distinguished achievement in both teaching and scholarly activity demonstrated through scholarly research, creative writing, original works of art, etc., and visibility within and beyond the university.

Homan along with the winners of the Teacher of the Year Award, Adviser of the Year Award, and the college level award winners of the teaching and advising awards were recognized at a reception hosted by President Bernie and Mrs. Machen on Tuesday.

Homan joined the UF faculty in 1972 in the department of English.  He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars and visiting professor of Jilin University in the People’s Republic of China. He has published widely in Shakespeare, Renaissance and modern drama.

Homan is the author of 10 books on Shakespeare and the modern playwrights. His scholarly interests have ranged from the metadramatic focus of his “When the Theater Turns to Itself: The Aesthetic Metaphor in Shakespeare” (1982) to his present work on a piece of historical fiction, “The Dove Society,” a novel, “One Wednesday in Brooklyn,” and an edition of essays, “The Audience As Player: Interactive Theatre Over the Years.”  He also collaborated with a colleague in sociology on a book about Hitler in the movies.

Homan has worked  in professional, university and community theaters where he has directed and acted in the plays of Shakespeare, Beckett, Stoppard, Pinter, Feiffer, Shepard, Checkhov, Wilde, Shaw, Williams, Churchill and Wasserstein, among others.  In February 2003 he made his New York debut in “All Our Yesterdays,” a piece in five movements for string quartet, piano and actor. He has directed musicals ranging from “Cabaret” to the “The Threepenny Opera. He has also adapted for the stage everything from Dylan Thomas and Machiavelli to slave diaries, as well as letters to the editor of the local newspaper in a show called “More Letters to the Editor” and a collage of African-American writings, songs and dances entitled “Black Voices.” He also has been a member of two improv groups, “Theater Strike Force” and “Yes, But….!”  More recently he has directed Stoppard’s play “Arcadia,” and formed a new improv group, “Much Ado about Doris.”

For more information on the university-wide awards and past winners, go to http://www.aa.ufl.edu/awards.