Dr. Wesley Joseph Mills: Home

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Public Voice

 

Phone: 

    207-216-4359

Email: 

    wmills@yccc.edu

Office: 

    B105L

Web: 

    http://virtual.yccc.edu/wjmills

 

   Feel free to check out my "away from academia" world:

 

Owl's Nest Ocean House

http://www.vrmaine.com/midcoast/54825.php

http://www.vrbo.com/54825

Check out some of the view related to my sabbatical and writing of the text VISION AND VOICE.

 

 

 

A Few Words of Introduction –

       Dr. Wesley Joseph Mills

       Professor, York County Community College

 

I am now in my twenty-sixth academic year at York County Community College, and I remain enthusiastic about being in the classrooms teaching courses in English, the humanities, and the social sciences, and at this point, especially Ethics and Civil Rights History.  With each new academic year, I look forward to our classroom journeys as together we explore life and learning through various reading, writing, discussion, and reflection endeavors. 

 

My academic background is as varied as my interests.  My bachelor’s degree is in political science with a combined integration of philosophy and sociology.  My master’s degree is in religious studies, particularly biblical literature and religious history.  My doctorate is in the field of social ethics, with a focus on moral education.  And throughout all three degree programs is the ever present vocation of writing, which I have been teaching in various settings for nearly four decades now.

 

Courses I typically teach at YCCC include: 

 

• American Government
• College Composition
• Ethics and Contemporary Society
• Historical and Literary Survey of the Bible
• Introduction to Philosophy
• Introduction to Sociology
• Reading and Writing Workshop
• Social Problems
• U.S. History to 1877
• U.S. Civil Rights History: The Struggle for Equality and Justice
• U.S. Government Internship
• U.S. Religious History
• World Religions 

When I’m not in the classroom or in my office grading papers, organizing curriculum, designing a new course, talking with students about coursework or this or that issue, shooting hoops, or just hanging around, I may well be walking the beach, taking in a Sea Dogs’ game, doing some landscaping, transferring junk from my basement or garage to the shed (and back again later), reading mystery novels, relaxing in my seasonal home in mid-coast Maine, hiking a mountain trail, or cruising in my boat in and about the coastal islands of Penobscot Bay.

 

In addition to my teaching vocations, I’ve worked at a Maine restaurant, retail store, and paper mill, served as an ordained minister, had published an instructional book on children’s sermons, also a collection of poetry, and more recently a narrative history of U.S. civil rights. I have also coached Little League for two decades, played a bit of basketball, softball, and ping pong here and there, and contributed to the establishment of a few social service endeavors—such as the Wayside Soup Kitchen and Root Cellar Ministries in Portland.

 

In addition to my various teaching stints at YCCC over the past twenty-five years, I have also taught a variety of courses for the ABCOM Institute for religious continuing education, Andover Newton graduate school (Boston), the Saco Island College Center, Southern Maine Technical College, and the University of New England.  I also developed and implemented adult and alternative programming at the Saco Learning Center and have written a variety of curriculum packages for the State of Maine Department of Education.

 

 

I come from a long line of people in seafaring, lighthouse-keeping, boat building, quarrying, writing, preaching, and teaching vocations.  Needless to say, I think I’ve found my niche in the teaching domain.  Thanks to all the students who make that possible.  Also, I invite you to check out any of the three books I've written over my teaching career.

 

 

During the fall 2022, I was on sabbatical working on a ethics text for one of our core courses, PHI 102. Check out my course descriptions on this website for more details on the courses I teach, at least some of which I will be teaching again come the next semester.  Feel free to drop by my office and chat—whether about class or other similarly interesting quests in life.  I welcome the opportunity for conversation as part of the ongoing journey of life long learning.