Past, current, and future students, parents, colleagues, and friends, a heartfelt welcome to you! It is my great honor to belong to the remarkable community at University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Thank you for visiting our website; please return often. We are poised for great growth in academic, co-curricular, and community programming and we’ll be bringing it all to you here – news, pictures, and resources. Better yet, come see us in person!
I couldn’t be prouder of our students and their achievements! It’s a great time to be an honors Hawk!
Dr. Lane hails from the small hamlet of Cape Vincent, NY, in the heart of the Thousand Islands (more than a salad dressing!), where the mighty Saint Lawrence meets Lake Ontario and where winter snow is measured in feet rather than inches. A first-generation college student who earned his BA and MA degrees from St. Lawrence U. and Binghamton U. respectively, he went on to complete his Ph.D. in French Literature at the Pennsylvania State U., with special concentrations in 19th and 20th-century poetics, women’s studies, and West African and Caribbean literature of French expression.
Portrait Photo UMESDr. Michael E. Lane
Dr. Lane in academic regalia
He began his faculty career in 2000 at Appalachian State U. in Boone, NC, first as Assistant then Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies. There, he taught a broad range of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in language, literature, cultural studies, and foreign language methodology. During his tenure at ASU, Dr. Lane was involved in many rewarding projects, serving as Director of international film series, of an international conference (BRICHA), and of multiple summer study abroad programs in Paris and Angers, France. Further, he was the PI and Director of a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad grant program that led a group of NC in- and pre-service K-12 teachers to Senegal. He was recognized by the NC American Association of Teachers of French as Teacher of the Year in 2012.
In January 2009, he was appointed Assistant Director of Appalachian’s Heltzer Honors Program and was later promoted to Associate Director when the program transitioned to collegiate status in 2010. In the Honors College, Dr. Lane was primary adviser for majors in Arts and Humanities, chaired the university-wide Honors Council, worked with faculty to develop and improve departmental honors tracks, and taught honors seminars such as “Picasso’s Paris: Hispanic Expatiates in France” that investigated the contributions of Spanish-born transplants to French literature and the arts and “Pros(e)tuition,” a study of the commodification of sex and text in French prose poetry and short fiction published over the last century and a half.
Dr. Lane squatting next to a tortoise
Dr. Lane standing behind lilies
Dr. Lane joined the UMES family in August 2013 as Director of the Richard A. Henson Honors Program. He also routinely teaches HONR 101: Honors Freshman Seminar: “Selves and Others” and provides oversight of the Seniors’ thesis and capstone experiences.
His greatest passion is teaching and mentoring students, to help them to achieve their own personal, academic, and professional goals. When he isn’t in the classroom or office, he enjoys reading, creative writing, painting, photography, remodeling projects, gardening, cooking, performing arts, foreign and classic film, boating, swimming, friendly volleys on the tennis court, travel and learning about other languages and the cultures that speak them. He and his husband, Nick, reside in Princess Anne.
He is a member of the Somerset County Historic Trust, of the Princess Anne Chamber of Commerce, and holds a seat on the Board of Directors of the Main Street Princess Anne Partnership.
Updated 05/20/2020
