Wesley Boozer
Mailroom: 430 Burrowes Building
Mailroom: 430 Burrowes Building
Spring 2024 Office Hours
Tuesdays from 11:55 to 1:25 Thursdays from 1:25 to 2:55 I am also available at other days and times if you would like to meet outside of these hours. Speak to me in class or send me an e-mail if you would like to meet at another time, and we will make an appointment at a time that suits you.Curriculum Vitae
Education
Professional Bio
My dissertation, A Writing Teacher Learns from his Students: The Symbiosis of Student-Centered Pedagogy and Teacher Research Methodology (VDM Verlag Press), was planned, researched and written over five years during my enrollment as a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in Rhetoric and Linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where I was a recipient of the IUP Foundation Fellowship in 2000. My study was pedagogically based due to my career focus as a classroom teacher and reflects my commitment to both student-centered pedagogy and the perpetual professional development of a lifelong learner.
My other scholarly interests include twentieth century Scandinavian writers and artists (e.g., Astrid Lindgren, Isak Dinesen, Ingmar Bergman), nineteenth century Swedish-American immigration, and the history of the English language.
Prior to joining the Department of English at Penn State, I was a full professor at Hodges University in Naples, Florida, where I wrote and taught English courses for fifteen years and was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020.
I come from a family of educators and researchers. My father, Dr. Robert Boozer, was an educational administrator in Delaware and a researcher in the early days of the Space Administration, working on rocket propulsion experiments in Cape Canaveral during the 1950s. My mother, Dr. Julie Boozer, is Professor Emeritus at Wesley College and a 1996 inductee to the Delaware Women's Hall of Fame for her pioneering work in pre- and post-natal care for mothers, fathers and their children.
Prior to becoming an educator, I was in the performing arts in New York City, and I still enjoy performing in operas and musicals and leading singalongs at homes for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
For the benefit of the curious, the name Boozer is Swiss and references the village of Buus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buus) in the canton of Basel, from where my father's family emigrated in 1736. The contemporary connotation with alcohol derived during William Henry Harrison's 1840 presidential campaign thanks to a glassblower named E.C. Booze. But that's another story--one I'll be glad to share with you in person.