I was born in Detroit and went to Pioneer
High in Ann Arbor before completing a BA in English
at Northwestern in 1972. From there I went to the
University of Virginia, where I got an MA and PhD
in English in 1974 and 1977 respectively. I arrived
at "K" within a month of finishing the doctorate,
in August of 1977. I directed the Women's Studies
Program here from its inception in 1980 until July
of 2000, and I still teach in that program as well
as in English.
I became a teacher because my own great teachers
were such powerful forces in my life. But any philosophy
of teaching that I have I've developed since coming
to "K." For me, developing as a teacher has meant
unlearning most of the old orthodoxy about teaching.
I very quickly abandoned what radical educational
theorist Paolo Freire called the "banker" model --
the teacher makes deposits of knowledge into the
student -- in favor of the midwife model: my job
is to help the student give birth to something new.
I see teaching fundamentally not as the transmission
of knowledge or information, but rather as a relationship
and a conversation. That is, of course, an ideal,
but there have been lots of moments at "K" when I've
seen it become real in a classroom, and I can't think
of anything more exciting. Finally, as a teacher
I want to play a crucial role as a guide who leads
students into greater critical consciousness of the
world they have inherited, and a greater sense of
themselves as powerful actors in that world. My disciplines
-- literature, writing, Women's Studies -- lend themselves
wonderfully to that enterprise.
My
teaching interests and responsibilities include women's
literature, nineteenth-century British literature,
creative nonfiction, and autobiography. My research
and writing are in those areas as well. I write autobiographical
essays and creative nonfiction, as well as literary
scholarship. In addition to articles and poetry,
I have published two books of essays, CALLING: ESSAYS
ON TEACHING IN THE MOTHER TONGUE (1992) and SEASON
OF THE WITCH: BORDER LINES, MARGINAL NOTES (1995).
Most recently, I am very interested in the emerging
field of Critical Whiteness Studies -- the study
of racial whiteness and its role in systems of racism
-- and am writing essays on the topic of whiteness
and teaching.
ob
is to help the student give birth to something new.
I see teaching fundamentally not as the transmission
of knowledge or information, but rather as a relationship
and a conversation. That is, of course, an ideal,
but there have been lots of moments at "K" when I've
seen it become real in a classroom, and I can't think
of anything more exciting. Finally, as a teacher
I want to play a crucial role as a guide who leads
students into greater critical consciousness of the
world they have inherited, and a greater sense of
themselves as powerful actors in that world. My disciplines
-- literature, writing, Women's Studies -- lend themselves
wonderfully to that enterprise. 
My
teaching interests and responsibilities include women's
literature, nineteenth-century British literature,
creative nonfiction, and autobiography. My research
and writing are in those areas as well. I write autobiographical
essays and creative nonfiction, as well as literary
scholarship. In addition to articles and poetry,
I have published two books of essays, CALLING: ESSAYS
ON TEACHING IN THE MOTHER TONGUE (1992) and SEASON
OF THE WITCH: BORDER LINES, MARGINAL NOTES (1995).
Most recently, I am very interested in the emerging
field of Critical Whiteness Studies -- the study
of racial whiteness and its role in systems of racism
-- and am writing essays on the topic of whiteness
and teaching.