Professor Seeks Change Through Documentary

SUZETTE ORTIZ
THE SIGNAL
Being a good professor is not just about teaching the material, but the quality with which it is taught. It is about going that extra mile to support everything you expose your students to so that they understand the material better.

This is not as simple as it sounds; educators need to have a passion for what they do to make them strive to be the best at it. Having a passion for teaching is certainly true for William Hoston, associate professor of political science. Hoston is also this year’s University of Houston-Clear Lake Piper Award nomination winner, which recognizes excellence in teaching.

Hoston started out as a research assistant at Florida State University and was later offered the opportunity to teach. He fell in love with teaching, and after being an educator at UHCL for the past five years, there is still nothing that brings him more joy than to see his students learn and succeed.

“Hoston is extremely student centered,” said Samuel Gladden, associate dean of the School of Human Sciences and Humanities. “He maintains strong connections among teaching, research and service.”

Hoston is always on the lookout for new ways to reinvent his teaching philosophy. He has determined to make his lectures go above and beyond a class period; he is determined to see change in the world.

Hoston, more than wanting his students to understand the material, wants his students to be able to apply the things learned in the classroom to real-life situations. He believes the only way to be able to do this is by showing students real-life examples, not just by reading directly from a book.

Hoston has always created visual aids to go along with his lectures. However, after writing his upcoming book “Black Dot in a White World,” he decided to create something different, something that “…will change the paradigm of academic teaching,” Hoston said.

He developed “Black Dot in a White World: Critical Discourse among Black Males in the Obama Era,” a documentary “[where] I ultimately want to be able to define what it means to be a black male in the 21st century,” Hoston said.

The documentary expands the discussion of the social, political and economic plight of black males in the Obama era and the way these will continue to change even after Obama’s term is complete.  The documentary lasts approximately 42 minutes, allowing for professors to show it to students during one class period.

Although Hoston has received both positive and negative feedback in regard to his creation, he is not letting the negative feedback stop him. He is determined to make a change and has decided to market his documentary as much as possible.

The UHCL campus will showcase his documentary at a Film and Speaker Series event Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. Hoston himself will be there to further explain the film and answer any questions the audience may have. The documentary is now available online for viewers who are not able to attend the screening at www.vimeo.com/williamhoston.

Hoston said he is proud to see his work be appreciated by the school and by his students, because “this allows [him] to see the impact [he has] had in the life of his students from all different backgrounds.”

“Dr. Hoston’s work shows the world the ground-breaking thinking that is happening on this campus, and it shows people this is a campus where great ideas are born,” Gladden said.