Calvin Bedient

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“Professor Bedient is the only teacher I have ever had whose lectures I wished to record word for word, not simply for their cogent literary insight, but also for the sheer beauty of their expression. He is also probably the most demanding reader I have ever had, one whose incisive comments on my written work have never failed to aid me in revision.” Thus writes one former graduate student who, with undergraduates and alumni, voiced enthusiastic support for Bedient as a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award with Distinction in Graduate Teaching.

The current vice chair of the English Graduate Program is quite specific in identifying Bedient’s work as a critic and scholar to be one reason outstanding graduate students in “dramatically increasing numbers” choose to apply to UCLA’s English Department. Placing high value on the opinion of his students, he often bases subsequent discussion on their comments while, at the same time, maintaining the previous trend of thought.

Bedient is also, as one admirer puts it, “never too busy for a student or a colleague. He’s a professor who can be found in his office – at many hours during the day, the night and the weekend. As one of the preeminent interpreters of modern literature, he’s good to have around. Bedient is a teacher’s teacher. But as the letters from undergraduates and graduates testify, there is plenty of Bedient at UCLA. It’s time we recognized our great good fortune.”