Patrick Baliani

Professor Baliani joined the W.A Franke Honors College Interdisciplinary Faculty in 2012 after teaching in the College of Humanities English Department, where he was Course Director of the Honors Composition sequence and a Teaching Advisor to graduate students.

His teaching awards include the 2023 Gerald J. Swanson Prize for Teaching Excellence, the University of Arizona Foundation Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative Teaching Award, the Honors College Five Star Faculty Award, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Academic Preparation for Excellence in Teaching (APEX) Award. He has twice received the Humanities Seminars Superior Teaching Award.

Patrick has worked steadily as a playwright throughout his teaching career. His original plays have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Phoenix, Prescott, and Tucson. He has also translated, adapted, and produced classic works from the Italian, including Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Boccaccio’s The Decameron, and Dante’s Purgatorio. He was awarded the National Repertory Theatre Foundation National Play Award, the Arizona Theatre Company New Play Award, and has received fellowships and grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Tucson-Pima Arts Council, and other arts organizations.