Eileen Barrett receives Sue Schaefer Award for 2012-13
Eileen Barrett (Photo: Barry Zepel)
- June 28, 2013
Eileen Barrett, English professor and graduate coordinator, was selected as the winner of the Sue Schaefer Award for 2012-13.
The Academic Senate established the award in the fall of 2001. It is named in honor of Schaefer, a professor emerita of management whose endowment funds its annual presentation. The award recognizes an instructor "who demonstrates sustained service to the faculty of Cal State East Bay."
Barrett has been a Cal State East Bay faculty member for 25 years. She previously served for 15 years as director for the Office of Faculty Development, now known as the Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET).
FaCET provides opportunities and space for full- and part-time CSUEB faculty, at all stages in their academic careers, to collaborate on projects that improve teaching and student learning.
“I enjoyed helping our students get the best faculty possible by helping them develop their skills,” Barrett said.
Barrett teaches courses that include Gay and Lesbian Literature, Critical Theory, Theory and Practice of Teaching Literature and Composition, along with several graduate seminars.
“I’ve always loved the classroom,” Barrett said. “I also love literature and teaching.”
She added that the favorite part of her job is working with the students.
Barrett has edited several books, including “American Woman Writers: Diverse Voices in Prose Since 1845,” “Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings (Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature),” and “Approaches to Teaching Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (Approaches to Teaching World Literature).”
Eileen Barrett and former Cal State East Bay professor Mary Cullinan -- now president of Southern Oregon University -- recently co-authored an article, "Professor or Administrator?" for The Chronicle of Higher Education. In it, Barrett and Cullinan debate whether academics should remain on the faculty or jump to an administrative role. In the article, Barrett is asked what keeps her charged up as a professor year after year.
“For me, students keep everything new and exciting,” she wrote for the article. “The student mix and the individual students are so different every year, every term.”