LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Dr. Mary O'Reilly of Skillman, NJ, and Dr. Arlene Wilner of Yardley, PA, both professors of English at Rider University, have been named the recipients of the Rider University Award for Distinguished Teaching for 1999.

The award, formerly called the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, has been presented annually since 1961 to two outstanding Rider instructors in recognition of teaching excellence. It was presented at Rider's recent 134^th commencement exercises.

Dr. Mary O'Reilly
Skillman, NJ

Dr. O'Reilly received her bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her master of arts from San Jose State University and her Ph.D. from Princeton University.

She began her association with Rider in 1972 as an assistant professor in the department of English. In 1979, she was promoted to associate professor and then to the rank of professor in 1985. During her tenure, she has taught an array of courses including Milton, The Poem, Sixteenth-Century Literature, Seventeenth-Century Literature, Shakespeare, Major American Authors, Short Fiction, and The Short Story.

Her administrative contributions include serving on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, the Department of English Writing Committee, the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Committee, and as director of the Writing Center. She was also recently named one of three co-directors for the new Rider University Theme Program.

Dr. O'Reilly has produced impressive scholarship as well. Her work deals with Jonson, Milton, and Henry James, as well as Vaclav Havel. Her publications have appeared in Explicator, Swedish Journal of Economics, Papers On Language and Literature, Studies in English Literature, Spenser Studies, and even in the Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. She was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow on several occasions at the University of California at Irvine, The University of Colorado, Boston University, and at a Summer Seminar for College Teachers at Yale University.

"Thanks to everyone who made it possible for me to be a teacher at all," said Dr. O'Reilly in accepting her award before 1,000 Rider graduates. "On a day like this, the most wonderful thing is to look out at all of you. I hardly recognize you; I remember you as freshmen who thought that euthanasia was a study abroad program. Now you're radiant, confident, and dressed for success."

Dr. Arlene Wilner
Yardley, PA

Dr. Wilner received her bachelor of arts from Cornell University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and her master of arts in English and Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. She began teaching at Rider as an adjunct in the department of English in 1981, and in 1987 she was promoted to assistant professor and became a permanent member of the faculty. In 1990 she was promoted to associate professor and in 1995 was elevated to the rank of professor. She has taught Composition, Satire, The Short Story, Understanding Literature, Business Writing, Technical Writing, Eighteenth-Century British Literature, and the Freshman Honors Seminar.

She has also developed three new courses that have become part of the curriculum: Classics of Children's Literature; The Literature of Adolescence; and Studies in American Jewish Culture.

From an administrative standpoint, Dr. Wilner was instrumental in the development of the English Department Technology Classroom, and will soon begin a term as the first director of composition at Rider University. In this role she will guide the implementation of our new freshman writing program. She has served on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, the Innovative Teaching Committee, and the Baccalaureate Honors Program Curriculum Committee, to name a few.

Dr. Wilner's scholarly publications include critical analysis of the earliest English novels of contemporary fiction, of Holocaust literature, and of children's literature in journals such as College Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, The Journal of Narrative Technique, and Quarterly for Literature and the Arts. She has made presentations to national conferences on literature, writing, and composition theory and practice.

Dr. Wilner has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for summer-long research seminars. She has been a Summer Institute Fellow at the Center for the Study of Writing and was selected to participate in the New Jersey Institute for Collegiate Teaching and Learning.

"What we as teachers wish for our students is that they imagine the best, most fully realized versions of themselves, more than what they see when they look in the mirror," said Dr. Wilner in accepting the award. "An imagined self more real, more powerful, and more promising than any unmediated reflection could be.

"What we as teachers hope for ourselves is that we can inspire them to sustain their faith in this vision and to help make it manifest in their lives."