February 3, 2021
East Central Community College English instructor Paige Case has been named the college’s 2020 Humanities Teacher of the Year and will present “Awakenings: Surprising Intersections between Jonathan Edwards and Ralph Waldo Emerson,” a special program beginning at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. Due to COVID-19, the public is invited to view the presentation on live stream on the Black Channel at www.eccclive.com.
During her presentation, Case will present a comparison/contrast of Jonathan Edwards and Ralph Waldo Emerson, key figures in early American literature. Case said, “As theologians, the two could not have been more different. In fact, one Emerson scholar writes, ‘There can be no doubt that Jonathan Edwards would have abhorred from the bottom of his soul every proposition Ralph Waldo Emerson blandly put forth in the manifesto of 1836, Nature.’ This language is strong, but true, making the commonalities between the two quite unexpected. This presentation explores their ‘surprising intersections’ as well as how these connections led to their stark differences.”
Case is a native of Brookhaven and graduated cum laude from Millsaps College in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In 1999, she earned a Master of Arts in Teaching degree with an emphasis on literature from the University of West Alabama.
During her career, Case has taught English and literature at the junior high, high school, community college, and university level. Her literary emphasis has been American literature, specifically early American literature. She has held her position at East Central Community College since 2015. Her primary focus at ECCC is composition, and she currently serves as lead instructor for Developmental English.
She and her husband, David, have three children, Elizabeth (Drew), Catherine (Brian), and Mary Madelon, and one granddaughter, Camille.
