Welcome

Professor David R. Werner,

Chair of the Department of English

Greetings! By way of brief introduction, I am the Chair of the English Department at the University. I also am the director of Educational Programs in Corrections (EPIC) at the University, through which program we offer college classes at a local State of California Youth Corrections Facility. I teach on-campus and also in that program. I started part-time with the University in 1976 and became full-time in 1982, so I've been around for quite awhile. I love La Verne and its mission and its sense of the social purpose and larger meaning of education. La Verne is a special place, and I hope you come to know it as such also.

I went first to the University of Wisconsin, but I received both my Bachelors and Masters degrees from San Francisco State University. I later studied for a while at Claremont Graduate University. I have written thirty or forty articles and two books, Correctional Education: Theory and Practice, on prison education and In the Shadow of the Hunter: What It Means to Be a Man, on the gender-related issues young men encounter growing up. I am working on a book on teaching.

I have very eclectic interests - I read in such diverse areas as mythology, gender issues, theoretical physics and astronomy, genetics, crime and criminology, mathematics, and, of course, literature. I keep up with current film and try to increase my knowledge of classic film. I often give workshops around the country on both prison education and gender issues faced by men.

The two courses I most often teach for the English Department are The Literature of Incarceration, which course I developed out of my experiences as a prison educator, and Mythology in Literature which owes a heavy debt to the work of both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, the latter of whose picture is at the right. I also teach a cross-disciplinary course in The Hero Journey, and I also teach writing through the Writing Program.

I am a child of the activist 1960's, and I have never lost my activist and political dimension. I believe that all people need to lead lives of meaning and fulfillment, and I believe that it is the responsibility of society and of each one of us to help people to achieve this need. I think society should be pro-active in promoting a just and peaceful world. I sincerely appreciate the mission statement of the University of La Verne, and I appreciate the attempt of this school to live up to what I consider to be truly honorable and moral goals.

I enjoy travel, bicycling, classical and folk music more than other kinds, and I like building things. I also keep trying to become more familiar with my computer but I sometimes conclude that it really does not want to be friends. Hope to see you at La Verne!

David R. Werner.

Email me at wernerd@ulv.edu