Steve Price named Mississippi College Humanities Professor of the Year

MC English professor Steve Price

Mississippi College’s Writing Center tutors offer invaluable services to students on the Clinton campus. They help polish students’ writing skills and encourage them to blossom as effective learners.

Overseeing the Writing Center remains a labor of love for English professor Steve Price. Colleagues are noticing his first-class work at the center at the Leland Speed Library and continuing success teaching English classes. The Wisconsin native was recently named MC’s 2017 Humanities Professor of the Year.

“I’m very flattered to receive this very unexpected, but appreciated award,” Price said in September.

A diehard Green Bay Packers fan, Price is even more passionate teaching literature and other topics. At Mississippi College, he’s serving as the 2018 London Semester Program professor. Steve is taking on more responsibilities this Fall as newly named faculty athletics representative. He’s offering sound guidance to the Christian university’s 17 NCAA sports teams.

Putting insightful words on paper is always a big part of his world. Price serves as co-editor of the “Writing Center Journal,” the publication of the International Writing Centers Association.

As the Humanities Professor of the Year, Dr. Price will deliver a lecture at the Gore Gallery on November 16. The title of his talk is “Pedagogy and the Humanities: Who Owns the Arts?.” The free event is open to the public and begins at 6:30 p.m.

Price earned his bachelor’s in English and English secondary education at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and taught high school in Wisconsin for three years. He received his master’s in English at Arizona State University and a doctorate at Louisiana State University before joining the MC faculty in 1999. He left MC for four years (2004-2008) to start a Communication Across the Curriculum program at Monmouth College in Illinois.

But Price dearly missed life and friendships in the South. He returned to MC in 2008 to teach in the English Department’s writing track and serve as a Writing Center leader.

He brings much to the table miles away from the Clinton campus. Steve stays busy on weekends as a dedicated volunteer with RideAbility or the Therapeutic Horseback Riding program. Based in Rankin County, the ten-year-old program teaches young handicapped students how to ride and care for horses. Steve serves as the program’s board chair.

“Therapeutic horseback riding builds body strength, balance, confidence, and communication skills,” Price said. “And there are immense benefits for volunteers, too.”

A relationship with a horse, he says, is a powerful thing. “I’m a better teacher having learned to work closely with horses.”

Jonathan Randle, the MC dean of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, commends Steven Price as an outstanding choice for the award.