I teach my students to more deeply understand and appreciate literature through critical analysis. By sharing my enthusiasm and expertise, I encourage students to become lifelong readers, writers, and learners.
“Overall, Professor Clark is outstanding. He is incredibly smart and encourages students to think deeply and critically about literature. He has inspired me to continue reading plays in my own free time because of his outward love and appreciation of them”
“Professor Clark was by far one of the best professors I’ve had at UNC. He was always so open minded and inviting to different perspectives. His passion for the subject really made it easier to study, and actually resulted in me becoming much more interested in poetry than I previously was.”
“It was evident that he really cared about all of his students, and I have rarely seen teachers make such an effort to get to know their students. By getting to know each of us more individually, Mr. Clark was able to better assist us with utilizing our strengths, and overcoming our weaknesses when it came to writing.”
As an interdisciplinary instructor, I have experience teaching Italian language courses, theatre history courses, process-based composition courses, and literature survey courses. Through intertextual readings, formative assessment, and student-centered discussions, I guide students in the critical analysis of global literary and theatrical traditions. My assignments challenge students’ assumptions about medieval and early modern cultures and foster experiential learning through applied research. My pedagogy reinforces the transferable value of literary analysis and the pertinence of Renaissance studies to students’ lives, and my teaching philosophy aims to inspire lifelong learning. To cultivate student investment, I blend instruction with entertainment, I regularly incorporate performance in my course design, and I encourage students to examine drama from multiple perspectives: reader, audience, and performer. In recognition of my pedagogical achievements and enthusiasm, I have been honored with teaching awards in foreign language, composition, and literature.
Teaching Awards
Associate Level, Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022
Erika Lindemann Teaching Award in Composition and Literature, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2019
Literature Teaching Award, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016
Foreign Language Teaching Award, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016
Engaged Instructor Award, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015
Teaching Experience
Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2013 – 2022
English 105: English Composition and Rhetoric
English 105i: Writing in Health and Medicine
English 125: Introduction to Poetry: Comparative World Poetry
English 126: Introduction to Drama
English 225: Shakespeare (Teaching Assistant)
Italian 101: Elementary Italian I
Italian 102: Elementary Italian II
Italian 203: Intermediate Italian I
Adjunct Instructor in Performing Arts, Elon University, 2020 – 2022
Drama and Theatre Studies 301: Theatre History and Literature I
Graduate Teaching Exchange, Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, 2017 – 2018
Italian 101: Italian Language Elementary I
Michael J. Clark 