The Spaces In Between

I have moved! From Maryland to Massachusetts! This year I am teaching at Amherst College as a visiting assistant professor in the Sexuality, Women’s, and Gender Studies Department (aka the SWAGs department, which is such a cool acronym). I am filling in for someone who is away on fellowship, and will be teaching courses focused on LGBTQ identities.

I am teaching two courses this fall, an intro level course, LGBTQ Identities and Communities, and an upper-level research seminar, The Queer and Trans Child (see the class website here) So far I am enjoying being on a small liberal arts campus, where everyone knows everyone, and classes are small.

My upper-level is tiny, with only 3 students, who, ironically enough, are not Amherst students. Students in the Five College Consortium can take classes at any of the colleges, and this class consists of Mt. Holyoke and Smith students. The class may be small, but the students are very engaged and eager to delve deeply into the readings and their research projects, which is really exciting! My intro course is also small–10 students–which is quite different than the intro classes of 35-45 students that I was teaching at UMD and Towson. While I was initially nervous about these small classes, as I get into the swing of the semester, I am feeling excited for all the possibilities that a small class brings, and it is making me feel nostalgic for some of the invigorating seminars I had as an undergraduate at Bucknell, and the relationships I was able to build with my professors there.

Amherst is committed to supporting their faculty as both educators and researchers and I am feeling lucky about the time I will be able to spend with students, and also the time and energy I will be able to dedicate to research and writing this year. My goal is to have my book proposal ready for NWSA in November! I am continuing to participate in The AGT 400 Word Monthly Challenge, which is helping me write regularly, and I am making sure my non-teaching days are writing days. Also, job applications for the next academic year have already opened, so those will also keep me busy this fall and winter!

After 8 years living outside of DC, I am happy to be back in a more rural area–surrounded by fields and woods and hiking trails. (I have never experienced a New England winter, so I may be humming a different tune about the outdoors then, but right now it is perfect). I am missing my friends and family in DC/MD something fierce, but overall I am feeling happy and grateful to be here. After a year of job searching and lots of jumping from place to place, it is wonderful to settle down in one location for a while, and I am happy to be in an area that is fairly rural but still queer. All of the students and the faculty I have met so far at Amherst have been warm, friendly, and engaging, and I am excited about seeing where this year takes me in terms of my teaching and research and writing.

Finally, three other cool things about my new job–this campus is really dog-friendly, so once Pippin joins me up here in early October he will be able to come to campus with me and hang in my office and maybe even come to class! (He is currently staying with a friend in MD because after moving I had some traveling to do and it would have been too unsettling for him). Also, there is a farm attached to campus called “The Book and Plow” and they have a CSA, with an abundance of diverse veggies, so I have been eating lots of fresh, local food. And, the Amherst colors are white and purple, and purple is my favorite color.

I hope that all of my readers are doing well, and that you are as excited about the Fall as I am. I also hope that anyone who is in the path of Florence is doing okay.

Till next time!