Derek Malone-France, George Washington associate professor of writing and religion, has been named the executive director of the University Writing Program, a GW initiative that ensures undergraduate students build effective communications skills.
“I’m honored and tremendously excited to have the opportunity to continue to lead GW’s University Writing Program as we pursue our goal of becoming one of the preeminent writing programs in the nation,” said Dr. Malone-France, who has served since fall 2010 as the program’s interim executive director.
Peg Barratt, dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, shared Dr. Malone-France’s vision.
“This is a signature program of the university, and I join Derek in his vision to build upon its strengths,” said Dr. Barratt. “As we become a global, internationally diverse university, effective writing and communications skills are essential components across populations, cultures and disciplines.”
Dr. Malone-France said he is particularly interested in expanding the program’s support for specific populations of students that face special challenges either due to their writing ability or their transition into the university.
An accomplished writer and editor, Dr. Malone-France is author of the 2007 “Deep Empiricism: Kant, Whitehead and the Necessity of Philosophical Theism,” along with the forthcoming “Faith, Fallibility and the Virtue of Anxiety: An Essay in Religion and Political Liberalism.” He has also published numerous journal articles and served as editor of a two-volume anthology on political dissent.
From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Malone-France taught in the philosophy and political science departments at Duke University, and served as associate director of its Center for Teaching, Learning and Writing.
He received his doctorate in philosophy of religion and theology in 2001 from the Claremont Graduate University, and has been awarded GW’s Morton A. Bender Prize for exceptional undergraduate teaching and a Trinity College Distinguished Teaching Award.
An independent unit housed within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the University Writing Program is made up of three divisions: First-Year Writing, responsible for the required first-year student course; Writing in the Disciplines, which includes upper-level courses in various undergraduate majors and minors; and the Writing Center, which tutors roughly 6,000 students each year. Approximately 400 faculty members are involved in administering the program.