A history professor who makes the subjectcome alivefor her students has won one of West Virginia University’s premier teaching honors.

Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, an associate professor of history, is the recipient of the 2006 Harless Award for Exceptional Teaching.

It is a great honor to be chosen for this award dedicated to excellence in teaching,Fones-Wolf said.The award is a reflection of the University’s commitment to good teaching. In fact, interaction with students is the heart and core of what the University does.

The Harless Award is the latest teaching honor for Fones-Wolf. She was a Faculty Merit Foundation Professor of the Year finalist in 2004, the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) West Virginia Professor of the Year in 2002, WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher in 2001, and was Outstanding Teacher, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, in 2000.

Fones-Wolf obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Maryland before earning her doctorate at the University of Massachusetts in 1990. She joined the history department in the Eberly College of Arts and Science in 1990.

Her approach to teaching is the same regardless of class sizemake contact with students and involve them in the learning process. She leaves the podium and roams the lecture hall raising questions, enabling students to be seen and heard.

I believe that successful teaching rests on both a genuine concern for students and on the ability to share with them your love of your discipline and more generally for learning,she said.Good teachers excite students about the subject matter and inspire them to want to keep learning. I strive to match these ideals in my teaching.

For Fones-Wolf, teaching doesn’t end in the classroom. She works individually with students preparing them for exams, offers assistance in organizing arguments and analyzing documents, and helps students improve their writing.

Students enrolled inHistorical Research and Writing,who are required to write a major research paper using original sources, can find her in the library conducting her own research, available to help with theirs.

For 12 years, she served as adviser to Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary and history club, building a sense of community among faculty and students. Phi Alpha Theta sponsored lectures, lunches and movie and pizza nights. These movie nights led her to develop a new class,Hollywood in American History,which explores the relationship between film and history. Using films as primary sources, the class encourages students to think analytically, not only about film, but about the media and its role in contemporary American society.

Fones-Wolf is the author ofSelling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-1960,the first book in the History of Communication series published by the University of Illinois Press . Her book,Waves of Opposition: Labor and the Struggle for Democratic Radio,will be published by the University of Illinois Press in 2006.

The Harless Award for Exceptional Teaching is named for JamesBuckHarless, a Mingo County coal executive and a long-time supporter of WVU . The winner of the award receives $5,000.