UF English professor receives Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award

April 9, 2015

The SEC has named Sidney Homan, professor of English the UF College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, as the university's 2015 Professor of the Year.

Each year, one faculty member from each SEC university is honored for excellence in teaching, research and scholarship. Homan, along with the 13 other winners, will receive a $5,000 honorarium and become the University of Florida’s nominee for the 2015 SEC Professor of the Year, to be named later this month. The winner of that award receives an additional $15,000 honorarium and will be recognized at the SEC Awards Dinner in May and the SEC Symposium in September.

Homan joined the University of Florida’s English department in 1972, after teaching at the University of Illinois and Boston University. A prolific author of books on Shakespeare and the modern theater, he also lists the 2013-2014 UF Teacher-Scholar of the Year among his many other teaching awards.

“The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards give us a unique opportunity to not only showcase the work of our outstanding faculty members, but to also support their future research and scholarship,” said Nicholas Zeppos, chancellor of Vanderbilt University and president of the Southeastern Conference.

To be eligible for the SEC Faculty Achievement Award, a professor must be a teacher or scholar at an SEC university; have achieved the rank of full professor at an SEC university; have a record of extraordinary teaching; and a record of scholarship that is recognized nationally and/or internationally.

The SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are both selected by SEC provosts, and the program is administered by SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference. SECU serves as the primary mechanism through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of SEC students and faculty are promoted and advanced.