When asked if I would review the new textbook on engraving, Design to Touch, written by Rose Gonnella and Erin Smith and published by the International Engraved Graphics Association (IEGA), I of course leapt at the chance. As someone enchanted by letterpress printing, I am equally fascinated by its sister art. Physically, the processes are […]
Category Archives: Teaching
April
09
Reader Empathy
posted by Stacy
We’re reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist in my World Literature class right now. Included in the brief Q&A at the back of our book is a comment from author Mohsin Hamid about why he writes: “I believe that the core skill of a novelist is empathy: the ability to imagine what someone else might feel.” After […]
February
19
Endings
posted by Stacy
I realized last week something that I probably always knew – my favorite part of a book (or poem or story or movie) is the ending. In two different courses with two wildly different texts in front of me (a collection of contemporary Chinese short stories and a poem from 1633), I gushed in front […]
February
04
“The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author”: Or, Ron + Hermione 4-Ever
posted by Stacy
One more reason I love my job: I spent my January sitting around a conference table talking with students about book covers, fan fiction, and the role of the “Author” and “Reader” in contemporary culture. My “Culture of the Book” class is always a favorite to teach – it’s based on my own research interests […]
November
13
Shakespeare and Comic Books
posted by Stacy
Last week, the BBC Culture website posted an article called “Finding Shakespeare in Thor”; within a few hours, it was reposted by many on my Facebook news feed, including The Folger Shakespeare Library (one of my favorite research libraries for both the nerd-tastic old books and the atmosphere – they serve afternoon tea to the […]
October
22
What Stacy’s Teaching: King Lear
posted by Stacy
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world! Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once […]
September
30
Rewards
posted by Stacy
I’ve been teaching college freshmen for more than ten years now – first as a graduate instructor in Rhetoric and General Education Literature and now as an English professor at a small liberal arts school. There have been countless sections of “required” writing and literature classes, and at the beginning of each one I asked […]
September
10
Why I’m an English Professor
posted by Stacy
Six years ago, I was in the blur of the first few weeks in a tenure track job – sleep deprived from all the lesson planning, nervous that I wasn’t smart/fun/“adult” enough to have this job… But I remember one specific Thursday afternoon amidst that stressful time: sitting in a circle of desks with twelve […]
Lettered Ladies 
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