ROBERT STEVEN FEREBEE

Department of English

North Carolina Wesleyan College

Rocky Mount, North Carolina 27804

252-985-5191 (office)          252-442-3952 (home)

sferebee@ncwc.edu

education  

1970-1974             University of Florida, B.A. with Honors in English

1974-1976             University of New Mexico, M.A. in English

1976-1981             University of New Mexico, Ph.D. in English 

Master's thesis  

            "Now and Forever My Own Mistress:  Virginia Woolf's Essay Style."  Directed by             Professors Harvena Richter, Fred Warner, and Paul Davis. 

Ph.D. area examinations 

            Twentieth-Century Literature (major field); Nineteenth-Century British Literature;             Seventeenth-Century British Literature; the Novel. 

Dissertation  

            "Virginia Woolf as an Essayist."  Directed by Professors Harvena Richter,

            Hugh Witemeyer, and Mary Power. 

Teaching experience  

            Professor of English, North Carolina Wesleyan College, 1996 to present. 

            Associate Professor, North Carolina Wesleyan College, 1990-1996. 

            Assistant Professor, North Carolina Wesleyan College, 1984-1990. 

Courses Taught:  Developmental, Freshman, Advanced, and Honors Composition; Creative Writing; Twentieth-Century British Literature; Nineteenth-Century British Literature; the Twentieth-Century American Novel; Horror Literature; Images of Women in Modern World Literature; British, American, and World Literature surveys; Art History surveys; Introduction to Humanities; Liberal Studies Seminar; Technical Writing; Business Communications; Systems of Grammar; Defining the 1960s; Senior Honors Project; Rock and Roll as Cultural History; Fundamentals of Communication; College 101; College 102; The Short Story; Music of the 1960s; American Humanities. 

Lecturer, University of Florida, January, 1982-June, 1984. 

            Courses Taught:  Freshman composition; British and American literature surveys. 

            Teaching Assistant, University of New Mexico, 1975-1981. 

            Courses Taught:  Developmental and Freshman Composition; Introduction to Literature; 

             Introduction to the Novel. 

CoLLEGE service  

Policy and Personnel Committee, 1978-1979; Departmental Council, 1982-1984; Psychology Research Ethics Committee, 1984-1988; Professional Development Committee, 1986-1988 [Chair, 1987-1988]; Humanities Representative, Faculty Council, 1987-1988; Vice-Chair, Faculty Council, 1989-1990; Secretary, Faculty Council, 1990-1991; Academic Policy Committee, 1988-1992 [Chair, 1990-1991]; Admissions Committee, 1989-1992; Chairman of the Faculty, 1991-1992; Past Chairman, Faculty Council, 1992-1993; Promotion and Tenure Committee, 1990-1992; Faculty Personnel Committee, 1992-1995 [Chair, 1994-1995]; College Advisory on Planning and Priorities, 1994-1995; Co-Chair, Symposium, 1995-1996; Retention Committee, 1995-1996; College 101 Task Force, Summer, 1996; Personnel Committee, 1996-1999 [Chair, 1997-1998; 1998-1999]; Academic Technology Committee, 1996-1997; Humanities Representative, Faculty Council, 1997-1998; 1998-1999; Faculty Council Subcommittee on the Faculty Constitution, 1998; SACS Subcommittee on Diversity, 1997-1998; SACS Committee on Student Development Services, 1998-2000;  Faculty Meeting Recording Secretary, 1995-present; SWOT, 1998-1999; Transition Team, 1999; Board of Trustees Focus Group, 1999; SACS Committee on Student Development, 1999; American Literature Search Committee, Chair, 2000; English Program Review, Chair, 2000; College President Search Committee, 2000; Strategic Planning Committee, 1999-2000; Theater Program Review Committee, 2000-2001; Dean of the College Search Committee, 2001; Chairman of the Faculty, 1999-2000; 2000-2001; 2001-2002; Curriculum Committee, 2002; Academic Policy Committee, 2002-2003; Admissions At-Risk Committee, 2003-2006; Dean of the College Search Committee, 2003. 

Faculty Advisor, Phi Eta Sigma, 1989-1997; Advisor, Alpha Delta Chi, 1987-1995.

Advisor, Omicron Delta Kappa, 1999-2001. 

            Director, Honors Program and Chair of the Honors Program Committee, 1986-1997. 

            Chairman of the Humanities Division, 2002-present.

Related professional experience  

            University of New Mexico's Communication Skills Test Reader and Counselor, 19781981; Volunteer teaching [Creative Writing and The Short Story], Highland Senior Center, 1979-1981; English Tutorial Program, 1979-1981; University of Florida's College Level Aptitude Test Reader, 1982-1984; State of Florida's Teacher Certification Exam Reader, 1982-1984; Advisor and Editor, North Carolina Wesleyan College's literary journal, 1984-1990; The Small College Committee of the National Collegiate Honors Council, 1988-1989, 1989-1991; North Carolina Honors Association, Program Chair, 1991-1992, President 1992-1993. 

Honors  

            National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers, directed             by Professor Daniel Schwarz, Cornell University, 1986:  "Critical Perspectives on the        Early Twentieth-Century British Novel." 

            Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award, 1990.  

            President's Leadership Award, 1994. 

            Omicron Delta Kappa, 1996. 

            Jefferson Pilot Professor, 2000-2001. 

            Exemplary Teacher of the Year, 2000-2001. 

Professional development  

            Modern Language Association Convention:  1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991.

 National Council of Teachers of English Institute on Teaching Literature to Undergraduates:  1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992.  College Composition and Communication Winter Workshop:  1988.  National Collegiate Honors Council Conference:  1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995.  Southern Regional Honors Council Conference:  1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996.  North Carolina Honors Association Conference:  1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995.  Annual Virginia Woolf Conference: 1996, 2000; 2001.  Epiphany Institute: 1997.  Delta Plus Executive Leadership Development: 1999; Title III Summer Curriculum Development Grant, 2002.. 

Memberships:  Modern Language Association (1980-present); South Atlantic Modern Language Association (1985-present); Virginia Woolf Society (1982-present); National Collegiate Honors Council (1987-1998); Southern Regional Honors Council (1987-1998); North Carolina Honors Association (1987-1998); American Association of University Professors (1996-present). 

Publications  

            "Bridging the Gulf:  The Reader In and Out of Virginia Woolf's Literary Essays," The College                        Language  Association Journal, XXX (1987), 343-361. 

            A review of Virginia Woolf and the Politics of Style by Pamela Transue, The Invisible Presence by Ellen  Rosenman, Virginia Woolf and the Real World by Alex Zwerdling, and Virginia Woolf and the Nature of Communication by Betty Kushen.  Modern Fiction Studies, 33 (1987), 354-357. 

A review of Virginia Woolf:  Dramatic Novelist by Jane Wheare, "To the Lighthouse" and Beyond:  Transformation in the Narratives of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Hyman, Virginia Woolf:  The Frames of Art and Life by Ruth Miller, The Sisters' Arts:  The Writing and Painting of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell by Dianne Gillespie, and The Essays  of Virginia Woolf, Volume II by Virginia Woolf.  Modern Fiction Studies, 35 (1989), 802-806. 

 "Leslie Stephen," Dictionary of Literary Biography:  Nineteenth-Century British Literary             Biographers.  Volume 141.  Ed. Steven Serafin.  Detroit:  Gale Research, 1994, 258-270. 

A review of Virginia Woolf’s Essays:  Sketching the Past by Elena Gualtieri.  Virginia Woolf Miscellany, 56 (Fall, 2000), 8. 

“Leslie Stephen,” “Muriel Spark,” and “Patrick McCabe.”  The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature.  Stephen R. Serafin and Valerie Grosvenor Myer, eds.  New York:  The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 2003.  649-650; 934-935; 944-945. 

Presentations 

            "Inside and Outside:  The Image of the Honors Program on the Small College Campus."  National Collegiate Honors Council, October, 1989.  Published in The National Report, Spring 1990. 

            "Diamonds of the Dustheap:  Narratee, Event, Reaction, and Evaluation in Virginia Woolf's Diary."  Modern Language Association Convention, December, 1989. 

Publications and presentations at North Carolina Wesleyan College  

            "Virginia Woolf, Bloomsbury, Sex, and the Liberal Arts."  Fourth Monday Colloquium address, March, 1986. 

            "Still Booming:  In Defense of the Sixties."  Proceedings of the Nash-Edgecombe Research and Dialectic Society, 10 (May, 1986), 6-9. 

            "A Report on an NEH Summer at Cornell University."  Faculty Retreat address, August, 1986. 

            "A Loathed Disturber."  Faculty retreat address, August, 1987, Printed in The Faculty Retreat Proceedings. 

            Writer of and performer in the play "Non-Threatening Behavior."  Coltrane Theater, February, 1988. 

            "The Responsibilities of Intelligence."  Phi Eta Sigma Induction address, March, 1988. 

            Co-Writer of the script for the President's inauguration celebration, April, 1988. 

            Performer in the play True West.  Coltrane Theater, February, 1989. 

            "Dr. Steve Muses."  A column for the school newspaper, 1988-present. 

            "Cultural Criticism and Wesleyan."  Faculty Retreat address, August, 1989.  Printed in The Faculty Retreat Proceedings. 

            "The 1960s:  Who Cares?"  Fourth Monday Colloquium address, October, 1990. 

            "Does Father Know Best?"  Nash/Edgecombe Research and Dialectic Society address, April, 1991.  Published in the Proceedings, 14 (May 1991), 22-30. 

            "Commemorating King's Ideas."  Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Forum address, January, 1992. 

            "Reading, Writing, and Thinking in Steve Ferebee's Composition Class:  The Circle   Effect."  Writing Program Newsletter 4 (August, 1993), 7. 

            "Failed Elitism:  Confessions of a Rock and Roll Fan."  Fourth Monday Colloquium address, September, 1994. 

            "Reading 'Reading':  In Pursuit of a Virginia Woolf Essay."  Fourth Monday Colloquium address, October, 1997. 

            “Do We Need the Dream?”  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Forum address, January, 1999. 

            “Why Liberal Arts?  Survival, That’s Why.”  Keynote speech, Founders’ Day, November, 1999. 

            Performer in the play Endgame.  Powers Recital Hall.  February, 2001.

            “Secret Portraits:  Narrative in British Modernist Fiction.”  The Jefferson Pilot Annual Lecture.  April 24, 2001.   

Areas of teaching interest and competence

            Composition, grammar, prose style, business communications, Virginia Woolf, twentieth-and nineteenth-century British and American literature; British, American, and World literature surveys; the novel; literary criticism; art history; humanities; film; horror literature; biography; the history of rock and roll; the 1960s; cultural studies; public speaking.