#howIwrite I like to write. I haven’t published much, so I wouldn’t call myself a “writer,” certainly not a poet, though I started writing things when I wrote poems to cope in junior high. They were cheesy love poems for my first or second crush. Rejected, I wrote more poetry, either sighed a lot, or…
Moana in Our Moment - Christina Carlson
When I teach my Disney princess course, one of the things we look at is the historical context for each film. Without going into detail here (I’ll be offering the course in Fall ’17, so come find out then!), suffice it to say that each of these films is a reflection of its moment in…
Reading Through Failure - T.J. Moretti
T.J. Moretti How I became a Shakespeare scholar and literature and humanities enthusiast is buried somewhere in the shell of a story about my failure to be a man. Perhaps it starts here: when I was in high school, just starting out, I figured that my 5’8” 140 lbs body was fit for football. When…
Speaking on Their Own Terms: Trans Women and Representation - Timothy Lyle
Timothy Lyle Initially, I had planned to compose a blog post structured by hashtags and infused with tweet-able moments about how and why I use social media in the literature classroom. But after careful consideration of recent current events, I have changed my mind—an often frustrating decision that is indicative of a life-long penchant for…
What’s Up With the Girls? - Christina Carlson
Christina Carlson Several years ago, I taught Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl as part of a course called “What We’re Reading Now.” At the time, I saw it as a response to life in America after the economic bust of 2008. But since then, I’ve started to wonder if it reflects a different kind of cultural…
Words I Loathe (part 1) - Aaron Rosenfeld
Aaron Rosenfeld As my students know, I loathe the word “relatable.” They know because I always tell them, usually early in the semester, and there is always a casualty (and to those unfortunates, I offer an overdue apology, along with my unstinting gratitude for supplying me with my teaching moment). I had not even heard…
Why English? - Anna Clark
Anna Clark Often when I ask my students why they chose an English major, they’ll tell me stories about how in middle school Harry Potter seemed more real than their best friend, or how they’ve compulsively written short fiction since the second grade. I love such answers. They make English feel like destiny. For these…
Book lists are important - Christina Carlson
Christina Carlson Book lists are important. When I was in grad school, we would exchange lists of our top five favorite books on first dates; if the lists didn’t pass muster, there was no second date. [Symbol] The books we love give insight into who we are, so I think it’s a useful exercise in…
These are a Few of My Favorite Things - Aaron Rosenfeld
Aaron Rosenfeld Here’s a game: It’s called “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.” Pick some works of art you really like, in different mediums – poems, novels, songs, paintings – and see if you can find a common thread, of style or theme, that suggests a logic to your choices. What do your…
What I Read Wednesdays - Alyssa Quinones
Alyssa Quinones For me, Wednesday is the day of the week that causes me the most stress. I spend my Tuesday evenings and the entirety of my Wednesdays with my nose in a book. As a grad student, having two lit classes back to back that are novel-based is no small feat. The permanent…