After a semester in college I’d only gone to the offices of two of my professors, and then I suddenly needed to go interview a professor whose class I’d never enrolled. I only vaguely knew who Dr. Lisa Moore was, a Plan II World Lit professor. But the moment I walked into her office I felt at ease. Her walls were lined with books, a corner of her office had an extremely comfy looking sofa, her window had purple curtains, and she had a huge smile on her face. Though I can’t say that I’ve braved an interview with a horrifyingly cruel professor, I can say that I’ve met one of the most caring women on campus, and I’ve brought you a glimpse into her extremely brilliant mind.
Would you like to introduce yourself, what department you’re from, what you teach?
Sure. My name is Lisa Moore, I’m an associate professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, and this year in plan II I’m teaching the E603 A and B. I also did that last year.
What is the main focus of the Plan II courses you teach?
My world literature courses are women writers courses. So what we’re doing is following the history of literature written in English from its start in 14th century England out through the roots of trade and colonialism as English becomes a global language, so it starts off as an English and American literature course and ends up as a post-colonial world literature course. And we do that through the lens of women writers and their journeys around the world as people shaping English’s literary language
Would you say your course is reading and writing intensive?
Yes, probably all the Plan II world lit classes are like that. We definitely place a lot of emphasis on writing. I think one thing that might be a little different about mine [my class] is that in the fall semester we do these special assignments called creative analytic assignments so that involves choosing one of the works of literature we have studied in these different genres: poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction, and doing a short assignment where you imitate the style of the writer that we’re looking at. So, for example, if we’re gonna learn about Mary Shelley’s sonnets, then you can attempt to write a sonnet. It’s sort of a multi-step assignment where you do the creative writing part then you write an analysis about what you learned about the literary form from attempting to craft it yourself. It’s not until the spring semester that we do the more typical . WE do a long research paper. The way we go about that is I ask the students to do several short assignments that are the component parts of a research paper, so the students do a paper about an archival object from one of the archives or libraries on campus. Then they write a proposal abstract. They do an annotated bibliography, they do a close reading, a secondary source analysis, and then finally they pull it all together into one big research paper. The idea is that they’re working on the pieces all the way through and so they’re learning how to do those different kinds of academic writing.
What would you say is the book you’ve enjoyed most out of the ones you read in your literature class so far?
The problem is that every one we come along to, I wanna go in on the first day and say “This is my favorite book of the whole semester!”. I would say I really enjoy teaching the first book we do. It is by a 14th century medieval mystic named Marjorie Kemp. And it’s just called Marjorie Kemp’s Book and it’s her autobiography, the story of her experiences. Her spiritual experiences, meeting Jesus and having Jesus tell her that she is know his wife and she is not allowed to have sex with her husband anymore. She had had 14 children, so it was kind of handy thatshe could turn to her husband and say for religious reasons, we can no longer have intercourse. It’s a striking story ecause she does all these kind of outrageous things. She withdraws form her marriage, she travels the countryside and then all over Europe and gets as far as the Middle East, talking to people about her experiences. And she visits all the major female mystics in her time and place. She goes and sees the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury to tell them they need to be living a more religious life. And this was in an era when they were burning heretics, so she was really riding a fine line between being perceived as extremely devout and being perceived as a heretic. The other thing she did was she burst into tears in public places and cried for hours on end. And she said she did that because she was contemplating Christ’s passions; she was contemplating the wounds and his death and all the terrible things that were done to him, and that just made her so sad that she couldn’t stop crying. I just think that people’s idea of the middle ages gets really shaken up by reading that book and realizing that it was an era of not just piety and formity, but of radical rebellion and non conformity. And it’s just a really interesting read. It’s challenge for students to have that as the first book they read because it’s weird, it’s in Middle English, and it happened a long time ago, but I think a lot of people come around to really appreciate it. As far as sheer readerly pleasure, there’s so many books on the syllabus I just love. George Elliot’s 19th century novel The Middle March is one of them, Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir The Woman Warrior. This year we’re reading a wonderful Indian writer named Shauna Singh Baldwin and her book called English Lessons, a Ghanian writer named Ama Ata Aidoo I like alot. Every one of them I chose because I love them and they really have something to say.
What do you expect out of the students in general?
I just expect them to, and this is never a problem with Plan II students, I expect them to really engage in the process. One thing that can sometimes surprise my students and trip them up a little bit is that I have them do these weekly blog posts, where they keep up with the reading and talk to eachother via their blogs about what they’re learning as they go along. So it’s a way of keeping in touch in between class periods and just making sure that in between the times that we’re doing formal writing assignments people are just getting some practice with their writing and continuing to work with the ideas and the language, and the terms that they’re learning. And those are only worth about 1% each, and sometimes people let them slide because it doesn’t seem like that big a deal, and then by the end of the semester, that can be the difference between an A and a B. It’s kind of the easiest grade you’ll get because it’s just pass/fail, but sometimes that really slips away and that’s because I think, as a teacher I’m very motivated to have the learning in the classroom be student centered, so it’s not quite so mucha bout me keeping ontop of you and making sure you’re doing what I want you to do. It’s more you taking ownership of your education and your experience in the class and keeping on top of your responsibilities yourself. I think that’s a big transition from high school to college for most people. It’s just like nobody but you really cares that you get the work done. So, I try to set it up so that there are these nice low stake pieces of writing that you can do so that no one thing is too overwhelming or stressful, but by the same token you gotta do it. Also, you have to come to class. Again, this isn’t a huge problem but there’s usually one or two students that just, they’re busy, or it’s early in the morning, and that just really ends up tripping you up when you haven’t had the benefit of hearing me discuss the assignments or you don’t know about the background on the work we’re talking about. So that can make a difference to people too. I’m very process oriented so for me, if you show up, you’ll be fine. For example, when I give papers back, all the research and composition shows that comments that professors write on papers, teach the students very little, in fact, they’re usually hard to understand and they don’t communicate what the professor has in mind very effectively. So, after every assignment students make an appointment with me and come to my office for a 10 minute conference on their assignment. They get this feedback that’s much more give and take and they can really make sure they understand what I’m looking for. That’s another thing students can forget about, or there’s always one or two students that don’t show up, and then they think “Oh well, I’ve already gotten my grade,” but that’s another moment where that is going to make a difference whether or not your writing is better the next time. So for me it’s all about just showing up and participating in the process and I think, then you will have success. It’s less about the product like “Here I handed in my paper, oh I missed peer editing and didn’t get my feedback and didn’t here you talk about the class, but here’s some pages,” that doesn’t work very well in my class. I like it because once students have found their way to my office for these mandatory appointments, they feel comfortable coming back. I can be a lot more of a mentor to those first year students.
To let the students get to know you better, what would you say is your favorite movie?
Of movies I’ve seen recently I really liked “Rachel Getting Married”. I thought that was really good movie. I also love “Julie & Julia”. It was very inspiring, it made me start a blog. And of long time favorites, I really like “Terminator” that’s a movie from the 80’s that I think is great feminist parable. The BBC version of “Pride and Prejudice”, the six part version, I’ve seen it many times. I always enjoy seeing it again. And classics, I can watch “Casablanca” as many times as you can play it. Those are some of my favorites. I love movies. I also love “Brokeback Mountain”. That was a great movie. The other thing I like about “Brokeback Mountain” is that it was filmed where I grew up, in Alberta, in Western Canada. The spectacular also reminds me of home.
What’s your favorite type of food/cooking?
I love cooking. For Christmas I got a vegan cookbook. I’m not a vegan and I’m not a vegetarian, but my partner’s mother gave me this vegan cookbook, which I thought was very nice of her, so now I’ve recently been making a lot of dishes that involve this ingredient called cashew cream which is what vegans use to replace dairy. And it’s delicious. So I’d say that’s a recent interest. I love Italian cooking, I love those flavors. I love anything to do with olives and feta, and tomatoes and one dish I’d like to make is one dish called Fattoush. It’s an eggplant, and red and green pepper sort of salad. Then you serve it with, and this is the non-vegan in me, then you serve it with a grilled lamb patty that’s been seasoned with yogurt on top. It’s really good. I think I better make that pretty soon. But I recently moved into a house with my partner, her mother, and our two kids and so I have a fabulous new kitchen and I’ve really been enjoying cooking in that kitchen.
Is there anything else you want to add or say to the students?
I would just say congratulations on choosing Plan II. You’re going to have a wonderful experience. Many students look back on their world literature class, whatever their subsequent major is, and it’s one of their favorite classes in college, and I hope to enjoy it. It’s one of my favorite classes to teach.
