Since her arrival at Ball State in 1998, Kecia McBride has taught a range of courses: nine different undergraduate courses and five different graduate courses. These courses represent her commitment to cultural and gender diversity, a willingness to move students into a deeper understanding of complex texts and a creative engagement with visual media. 

For example, McBride has developed innovative undergraduate literature courses, such as a senior seminar on narrative theory and an upper-division course on 19th-century American women fiction writers. She also developed courses in the underrepresented areas of feminist theory and gender studies. But it is her work in film studies that has made perhaps the largest impact. Her leadership has been a model for those faculty who are working with visual technology and seeking to make interdisciplinary connections.

She is also concerned with graduate pedagogy, as evidenced by service on nine dissertation committees and three thesis committees. She has a reputation among graduate students as a rigorous but supportive teacher who models the best practices that they are themselves developing. She is called a "brilliant reader," one who responds to chapters with challenging comments and inspires students to make radical revisions.

McBride maintains a constant dialogue between her teaching and her scholarship. In 2005, she edited "Visual Media and the Humanities," a book of essays collected from scholars who are reflective readers of new media such as film, digitized texts and the Internet in humanities courses. The book is aimed at academics trained in traditional disciplines as they attempt to incorporate visual media in classes without simply replicating methods used to teach traditional texts.

Finally, she is a generous colleague when it comes to teaching. She helps junior faculty develop their skills by visiting their classes and writing constructive and supportive evaluations. For three years, she used her administrative position as assistant chairperson to improve teaching in her department, and there is every reason to believe that this will be a priority for her as a new department chair.

A former colleague writes: "In her department, Dr. McBride has supported an infrastructure and created an atmosphere that invites, recognizes and commends excellence in teaching. Kecia McBride is, above all, a leader for teachers."