Coastal Carolina University professor Maria Bachman has been selected as the 2006 South Carolina Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The recognition is made through the U.S. Professors of the Year program, which selects a professor from each state to be honored for instructional skills and for outstanding commitment to teaching undergraduate students. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is a co-sponsor of the program, which also chooses four national winners each year.

Bachman, associate professor of English and journalism, is director of Coastal's Women's and Gender Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program that draws on resources from education, business, humanities, the fine arts, and natural and applied sciences. She earned a bachelor's degree from George Washington University, a master's from George Mason University and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee. Bachman teaches a variety of courses on 19th-century British literature and culture, British and Irish modernism and the novel.

She has co-edited scholarly editions of two Wilkie Collins novels, "The Woman in White" and "Blind Love." She is also the author of "Reality's Dark Light: The Sensational Wilkie Collins" and has published articles on Samuel Richardson, Benjamin Disraeli and Charles Dickens.

Since 1981, the U.S. Professors of the Year program has rewarded outstanding academicians for their dedication to teaching, commitment to students and innovative instructional methods. It is the only national program to recognize college and university professors for their teaching skills. The program is sponsored by CASE and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which hosts the final round of judging and donates a cash award for the national winners. CASE works with Carnegie and 26 other higher education associations to direct and promote the program.

"Maria is an exemplary scholar and instructor," said Edgar Dyer, a CCU vice president who nominated Bachman for the award and was formerly her dean in the College of Humanities & Fine Arts. "Our students acquire a magnificent educational benefit from her teaching ability and devotion to the classroom."