Women's Month Interview: Tables Turned

How do we know each other?
I am she as you are she as you are me and we are all together.

How would you describe yourself?
A writer. Loopy. Amused. Obsessed. A teacher. A dreamer.

In what part of the world are you located?
Lebowski Land AKA Albany. I am pleased to be here, but we all know I should be in London and I will be.

Where can we find you on the web?
Here (and my other blogs -- links to the right)! Facebook, Twitter, my website, BitchBuzz and about a million other places.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
That I became a confident, assertive woman mostly by pretending to be a confident assertive woman. Vonnegut's words echo in my brain always: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be very careful about what we pretend to be."

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
I gots a PhD. I have a long list of publications most of which make me proud. I have become confident and assertive. I have a good job. I'm getting better at living happily now.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
To have a play on in the West End and a BBC radio show -- which I will enjoy from my flat in London -- and about a million other things. I am chock full of ambitions for my writing.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
The lovely one given by Danny Fingeroth when we were together on a panel at PCA in San Diego (he was a special guest). I gave a paper on Alan Moore that was really more of a performance piece. Danny went after me and started by saying something along the lines of, "This is like trying to follow Frank Sinatra with 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'" -- it remains Best. Compliment. Ever. Though I really love seeing students leave comments on evaluations like "Beowulf ROCKS!"

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Champers, friends and good food.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Meditation and writing, although venting to friends is very important, too.

What makes you laugh?
Peter Cook. Oh sure, I love the Pythons, AbFab, Eddie Izzard, Morecombe & Wise, Dylan Moran, Arrested Development and the Simpsons, but nothing beats Peter Cook.

What makes you cry?
Anger and frustration; classic weepies like Now, Voyager.

What do you love?
In addition to the obvious people (who know who they are and know how grateful I am to have them in my life) and my Kipper, I love writing, music, theatre, art, laughing out loud, stretching my brain, Belgian beer, cold vodka, Indian food, and words words words.

What do you loathe?
Abuse of power. Lack of imagination or generosity or curiosity. Blind obedience. Obstinacy. Small spirits.

What's sexy?
Intelligence and a sense of humour - either without the other is useless; people who burn with the fire to create.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
Samuel Beckett: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." For many years I was terrified of failing. It's still hard for me, but I have finally begun to realise that without throwing yourself into the possibility you will never really accomplish anything worthwhile. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

How should people be spending their money?
Of course they ought to be buying my books! I should have the proof of Unikirja this week, hurrah. I also think it's great to support groups like Kiva and Water Partners because they go to the root of the problems of poverty unlike many paternalistic organizations, helping women and children who make up most of the poor worldwide.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My wonderful wonderful friends, many of whom have been featured here this month. The handful of very good teachers I had growing up (off the top of my head, Mrs Vance, Ms Seltzer, Ms Shapiro...more! but I'm having a hard time dredging up the names although I can see the faces). Medieval women like Hrotsvit, Marie de France, Margery Kempe, Anna Bijns, Eleanor of Aquitaine, as well as later writers like Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, Lady Montagu, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Brontës, Virginia Woolf, Anne Sexton, Shirley Jackson, Angela Carter, Lynda Barry, Liz Hand, Storm Constantine, Octavia Butler and a thousand more. All funny women! My mom who instilled me with a belief that I could do more. My Aunt Fanny who was a woman ahead of her time. Many of my students (especially at UHD), many of my colleagues, and all of my friends. So many!

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Buy a flat in London and pay off my debts.

A giant-sized "Thank you!" to everyone who participated in this month-long celebration. I am stunned by the amazing qualities of the women I know, their fearlessness and their good humour in the midst of many struggles. So many of you were so self-effacing ("oh, I'm so boring" or "my answers won't be interesting"), but you all helped demonstrate the incredible web of women that are linked solely by knowing one person. And with luck, more of you know each other now!

We all have a web like that. You only need look around to see it. We are all fortunate to share such networks, although they're easy to take for granted. In the last couple years I have learned just how important that web can be as a safety net. I am grateful to you all, more than I can say. I love you. Thank you so much!

Women's Month Interviews: F

How would you describe yourself?
Conscious and calling it "success."

In what part of the world are you located (and are you happy to be there)?
Georgia. . .not entirely

Where can we find you on the web?
Facebook

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I draw and paint.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Raising my kid, Ph.D., retaining my imagination.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Travel, publish, love. . .repeat!

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
"You helped/inspired me"

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Tell my friends, dance.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Yoga, red wine.

What makes you laugh?
The absurd joy of being.

What makes you cry?
The absurd joy of being.

What do you love?
My family, vegetable korma, the smell of puppy paws, the color of the sky at twilight.

What do you loathe?
Meat, stuck up people, cruelty for its own sake.

What's sexy?
Laughter, honesty.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
Breathe.

How should people be spending their money?
Support independent artists, spay and neuter stray pets.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
Marie de France, Debra Harry, my daughter, the WWI Nurse I met in CA.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Buy land, buy stocks, buy chocolate. . .

Thanks so much for being part of this month-long project -- you are fabulous!

Women's Month Interviews: Constance Wagner

How do we know each other?
Through the Medieval Group of PCA and possibly another life.

How would you describe yourself?
Quirky and creative; intelligent and affable; stable and sane. No, really.

In what part of the world are you located?
Physically, I am in the New York/ New Jersey metro area. Mentally these days, I am mostly in Middle-earth. Ecstatic to be in both locations simultaneously.

Where can we find you on the web?
No real web presence as of yet. Am working on it but you can find blackmail-worthy pictures of me on Photobucket. There are also a few of me in an Elven cloak and boy’s garb from a day at a Renfaire when my gown was not “wear worthy”.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
That I truly believe that Art (all forms, visual, written, perfomance) is the Song of the Soul.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
My work with Lord of the Rings in general and my interview and article arising from it with the principal actors of the London production of The Lord of the Rings. My article Arresting Strangeness is the best thing I’ve written so far in that I think I have devleoped a new form of litcrit as performance. Or so I say with my mouth ….

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Finishing my first book. Working on my poetry collection. Maybe some self-publishing. Hope for commercial success with various books published by commercial house.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
Again not sure but they generally have to do with my writing. The actors mentioned above were very complimentary about my interviewing skills and the playwright called my piece “vivid and evocative”. Also, Isaac Asimov once groped my mini-skirted thigh at a science fiction convention. [Ewww!] Does that count?

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Call people. Go out and have dinner. After I do the private Happy Dance.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
TM

What makes you laugh?
Word play. Layered references to high and pop culture stuff.

What makes you cry?
Last several minutes of Return of the King when Frodo boards the Elven ship and is basically resurrected.

What do you love?
Are you paying attention? Epic literature – particularly LOTR. But also beauty and stillness in moments. Starshine. Moonrise. Gorgeous choral music. Shakespeare. Madrigals. Learning stuff. My friends and family. (This is no particular order of importance. All seem equal.)

What do you loathe?
Dishonesty. Manipulative people. People who don’t respect intellectual and artistic pursuits.

What's sexy?
Humor and intelligence and Tom Selleck in his hey day. Go, Magnum!

What's the best advice you were ever given?
Hhmm, the temptation is to stay on theme and quote Gandalf in LOTR about deciding how to use the time given us, but since he wasn’t really talking to me (He wasn’t, was he?), I’ll have to say it was advice about not remaining in a dead-end relationship out of a sense of obligation to a really nice guy who just wasn’t right for me.

How should people be spending their money?
I think people need to donate to the arts and education. Their choice as to how. Oh, and public TV is a good choice, too.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My mother who was a factory worker during WWII; my Mom is 91 and still her feisty self. Joan of Arc, my favorite saint as she was a visionary (literally) and a warrior. And Charlotte Bronte. Probably others. I also thought Emma Peel was a great fictional depiction of a liberated woman and said “I wanna be like her when I grow up!” when I saw my first episode of The Avengers when I was in 7th grade. No one else seemed to get it in my class.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Immediately indulge in an orgy of bill paying; full-time care for my invalid Mom; home renovation; travel; find sound investments; donate to arts and ed charities; breathe more easily.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are medievally fabulous!

Support Women Artists Now!

Review: King Kong Theory

See my brief review of Virginie Despentes' King Kong Theory over at BitchBuzz. Be sure to check out all the other fun pieces at the mag, too. I'd like to write a longer and more thoughtful review of the book, which it deserves. Despentes comes to the topic of women today from very disparate experiences: as a rape survivor, former prostitute and punk rocker as well as writer/director of the controversial film, Baise-Moi.

Women's Month Interviews: Kate Koppy

How do we know each other?
You gave me my first break! I presented in one of your sessions at PCA in Boston and then again the next year at Kazoo.

How would you describe yourself?
Earth Mother, Peacemaker, Hearth Keeper, Crone.  I am a contradiction in terms. I am an intellectual Christian, a teacher-researcher, a servant leader, a cosmopolitan country-dweller. I tip the apple cart, but I help to put the good ones back in.

In what part of the world are you located?
Southwestern Michigan is beautiful, but I miss the mountains and the ocean.

Where can we find you on the web?
Facebook and http://kolokoli.blogspot.com/

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
They think I'm arrogant or snobbish when in reality, I'm insecure. Also, just because I speak Russian doesn't mean I am Russian. Amazingly enough, Americans can learn foreign languages to a high degree of proficiency.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
A marriage based on love and sustained by communication. Children who think for themselves.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Someday, a PhD.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
I dance around the kitchen and crow. Then I call/e-mail/post to my best friends so they can crow with me, too.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Chocolate and Yoga.

What makes you laugh?
Silliness, of course.

What makes you cry?
Criticism from someone whose opinion matters to me. Also, sappy movies.

What do you love?
My children and books and chocolate.

What do you loathe?
Incompetence endowed with power.

What's sexy?
A smile. The clean freshness of just-showered skin. Red wine and chocolate.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
"You don't need books in the library to tell you what you already know. Go write the paper." Bill Leap, Linguistic Anthropology, American University

How should people be spending their money?
Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute

Which woman/women have inspired you?
Anne Bradstreet, the maiden without hands, Kali

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Pay. Off. Student. Loans. Give generously to Mortenson, Habitat, and UMCOR. Buy an ocean house in the US and a forest dacha in Russia. Invest and enjoy.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!
Thank you for asking me!

Which SF Writer are You?

Fair enough!

I am: Samuel R. "Chip" Delany Few have had such broad commercial success with aggressively experimental prose techniques.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Publication: Wixey

My flash fiction piece "Wixey" will be coming out in Wild Violet. The story is inspired by the many horror stories that inevitably come up at MLA, the most stressful conference for people in languages and literature because it's where the job interviews are done. It's a short piece, but it came together quite satisfyingly nonetheless.

Wild Violet has also published a couple of other pieces by me: "Corrections to the Rules of Fimble Fowl (for 3 players or 4)" and "Me and Margery Kempe." I think it's safe to say that editor Alyce Wilson appreciates my particular sense of humour.

Women's Month Interviews: Pat Golemon

Pat was our very first friend at the University of Houston-Downtown. We had gone to check out our offices and met Pat who remembered us from our interviews and immediately said, "Let's go to lunch!" We had a fabulous lunch and have been friends ever since with both her and her husband Peter, AKA Batman. I made a lot of friends in Houston, but Pat, I miss you the most every day!

How do we know each other?
From our terms in the UHD Valley of the Shadow.

How would you describe yourself?
I am tall (too tall according to a Chinese man who saw me walking in Taiwan), not skinny any more but less fat, blonde (even my gray hair is blonde), bloodshot blue eyes, wrinkles everywhere.

In what part of the world are you located?
In Houston. It’s better than Lubbock. I’m happy to be here as this is where my attorney husband gets paid.

Where can we find you on the web?
No place. I like it like that.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I don’t know, either.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
I also don’t know that. If by people you mean students, it’s that I am not mean.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Finding the meaning and secret of life.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
To guide my grandson into a life with fewer mistakes than mine; to teach a semester in several different foreign countries; to go to Antarctica before it melts; to see Kate over Easter in New Orleans; to get my teeth white; to go straight to where Jesus and Buddha hang out and not reincarnate any more; to clean off the top of my desk and maintain it as clean; to have time to work the NY Times crossword every day with a cup of tea before I have to get anything else done; to take my children and grandchildren and Peter on another vacation trip; to visit India and Israel without getting killed; and several thousand other things but I’m sure you’re tired of reading by now.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
That I did something difficult with grace.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
With dear friends and bubbly.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Forgiving the situation and the people in it and seeing that it isn’t really all that important.

What makes you laugh?
Everything, particularly British humor and the daily comics “Get Fuzzy” and some others.

What makes you cry?
Everything, including silly movies, hurt feelings, sad books, sad things happening to others, spilled milk. I even cry when I’m extremely happy.

What do you love?
My husband Peter and almost everyone else (I’m working on everyone), raspberries, trips abroad, staying home, eating bacon and eggs and pancakes on the same plate, my children and grandchildren, lunch at Brennan’s, dinner in Sicily, cooking, eating, drinking, laughing, funny jokes. Everything that I don’t dislike.

What do you loathe?
Ambivalence, changes for no reason, bad luck, the Sunday Times puzzle when I can’t get it all, dirty fingernails, student papers which show they have not a clue as to what is going on, bad food, bad jokes.

What's sexy?
Almost everything.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
To love everyone, especially the unlovable ones, as they likely have a back story no one knows to explain their unlovableness. And to eschew judging.

How should people be spending their money?
Women should spend money on children, especially hungry ones, and good bath salts, massages, good therapists, good jewelry (but not excessive in quantity or price)(unless you are rich), clothes that look good on you and are not boring, sensible shoes, ridiculous but sexy shoes. If you are wondering why I have not said spend money on saving the world it’s because that is not possible and if everyone practices forgiving and loving it will be saved. And the money can be used for children and fun. (You might say one can have more fun without children, and you wouldn’t get an argument from me.)

Which woman/women have inspired you?
Kate Laity, Gina Castellano, Teresa McCanlies, my grandmother Patti Lee Hall Blake, my fourth grade teacher Ms. Logan, Mother Teresa, Mary Ann Evans, my daughters Anna and Allison, Joan Didion, thousands of others.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
My father used to answer that question “Pay it down on my debts and ask the others to wait.” It’s a good answer.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: love you and miss you so much!

Kantele TV

(check the credits at the end, too :-)

Women's Month Interviews: Carol Harris

How do we know each other?
From Maine Kantele Institute, where I shared in the catharsis of a group improvisation immortalizing your hatred of Houston in a jangle of strings.

How would you describe yourself?
Oldest child of two passionate academics, steeped from birth in rationality and the love of books and words, I have a scientific mind and yet all my life I’ve been nostalgic for the world of the old myths and tales I read as a child. I’m a dreamer, a perfectionist, a Luddite. Conscientious. Terrible at decision making. Possessed of considerable inertia (whether at rest or in motion). Aware of interconnections.
When I see someone doing something wonderful I want to be doing it myself. Now working as a freelance translator, after stints in labs, orchards and offices; now leading a women’s world music choir after trying my hand at various crafts and instruments and my body at flamenco and African dance; still not sure what I want to be and starting to suspect I will never grow up. By some miracle, relatively undamaged after 54 years in this world. Self-proclaimed totem: Heron, who is both solitary and social (and very untidy!)

In what part of the world are you located?
Sherbrooke, Québec. I like the people here and there’s enough interesting things going on; it’s a nice medium-sized pond to be a medium-sized fish in. The city is invading the pockets of urban wilderness I loved, though, and the winters are long.

Where can we find you on the web?
Facebook.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
When I seem stand-offish it's because I'm feeling insecure.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
Thinking I come from some exotic place. Adding an e to my first name.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Learning another language well enough to really live in it. Designing and crafting some beautiful things. Developing the Choeur des Sangs Mêlés: overcoming my antisocial nature sufficiently to pull together a group of women to tackle some unusual and sometimes quite challenging music; the enjoyment people get from our performances; the artistic achievement of choosing the pieces, figuring out or writing the arrangements and weaving them together around a theme to form a meaningful whole that resonates with people; the money we’ve raised for some good causes.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Creating more concerts, around the themes of peace and magical transformation, among others. Maybe organizing a joint event with other local groups. Making a transition to the country, growing at least part of my own food, getting partially or completely off the grid.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
After one of our choir concerts, a friend whom I admire greatly as a musician and a person told me she had left the house feeling so bummed she wasn’t even sure she wanted to come, but the concert had turned her around completely and made her remember what live music is for.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
I take my boyfriend out for Indian food. Or do a little dance, or hug the nearest cat …

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Putting my iPod on shuffle and going out for a walk works pretty well.

What makes you laugh?
Mimicry; physical humour. Peter Sellers, Jim Carrey. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The cats playing. Orgasm!

What makes you cry?
“And everywhere the free space fills
Like a punctured diving suit
And I’m paralyzed in the face of it all,
Cursed with the curse of these modern times”
-- Bruce Cockburn, “Gavin’s Woodpile”

Beings that are cast aside after years of loyal service; beings that trust and are betrayed; beings struggling so incredibly hard to live when what they need just isn’t there. Plants stunted, bees unable to find their way back to the hive, polar bears adrift on dwindling icebergs, playful dolphins massacred. Big Bear with the white world closing in, the AIDS-ridden Bushmen in their resettlement camp dancing their healing dance as a tourist attraction. Sheer frustration. Magic mushrooms (way back when).

What do you love?
Wind. Trees. Birdsong. Cats. Funny people (Louis in particular). Bright, rich colours. Complex patterns. Craftsmanship. Natural materials. Music with a wildness to it that evokes the steppe. Art in any medium that tears the veil between this world and one that is wider and deeper.

What do you loathe?
Manipulative, twisted thinking posing as rationality; sleaziness. Ersatz anything. Oversimplification, homogenization, reduction to the lowest common denominator. Saccharine pop culture; cutesiness.

What's sexy?
Eye contact; a certain kind of lingering look. African master drummers. Confidence: I find real confidence (not insecurity masquerading as machismo) very sexy.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
All my life people have been telling me to relax. That's definitely the best advice I have been given, but I still don't have the faintest idea how to follow it.

How should people be spending their money?
People should be buying locally produced or Free Trade, organic or environmentally friendly everything, whenever possible, even if it costs more. And supporting local musicians and artists.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My mother, who grew up poor in a fishing village and went on to get a PhD in chemistry in the early 50s when that was even more non-traditional than it is now. Who worked full-time and raised four kids and kept the artist alive inside her through it all. The talented, creative, sensitive, generous women I sing with.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Probably give most of it to organizations like Survival International, First Peoples Worldwide, Équiterre, Sierra Legal, Greenpeace … it’s horrifying to think that a million would be a drop in the bucket, really.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!
Thank you for holding it, fabulous Kate! These are great questions; it’s been a real pleasure thinking about them.

Ada Lovelace Day

"I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same."

— Suw Charman-Anderson

Thus Ada Lovelace Day was born. I learned about this from a story in The Guardian (of course). While there are organizations to help bring together women in technology, like Women in Technology and the Anita Borg Institute (don't you want to join the Borg?), the profile of women in technology remains low and girls are still not encouraged to follow technological careers.

The Borg institute offers "Women of Vision" awards to help address this imbalance. One of the recipients of this year's awards is Professor Jan Cuny of the National Science Foundation, who's doing work on recruiting and retaining women in the field of computer science and engineering. Not surprisingly, the study includes the following recognitions:

There is strong evidence, for example, that women, even though they perform at the same levels, have less confidence in their abilities and individual accomplishments than men [2][17][36][39][43]. Women are often less aggressive than male students in promoting themselves, attempting new or challenging activities, and pursuing awards or fellowships. There is evidence that females come to computing as only one interest among many, and are thus less single-minded than their male counterparts [27]. Often women report feeling “out of place” in the male-dominated, hacker culture [3][22][28]. In light of such differences, some of our recommendations are gender-specific. Most, however, are not. The adoption of our recommendations would improve the educational environment for all students.

I think a lot of women in academia experience this (and probably a lot of women not in academia, too), although I imagine it must be exacerbated in fields that remain overwhelmingly male. Wonderful to know that the issues are being articulated and addressed -- and that they are likely to improve the lot of all students.

Hurrah for Jan and all women in technology!

Women's Month Interviews: Alex

My fabulous sister-in-law answers the questions in her own inimitable manner (one some Facebook users will recognize):

How do you want your name to appear?
Shattered (Richard Hell)

Is there a URL to a picture of you that I can use?
Beginning to See The Light (The Velvet Underground)

How do we know each other?
Konrad - 1st Part (Laurent Petitgand)

How would you describe yourself?
Armageddon Days Are Here (Again) (The The)

In what part of the world are you located?
Where I'm From (Digable Planets)

Where can we find you on the web?
As You Are (Travis)

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
Lost in the Woods (Pete and the Pirates)

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
El Microfono (Mexican Institute of Sound)

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Everybody's Song (Low)

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Now We're Getting Somewhere (Crowded House)

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
Notas (Gotan Project)

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67: II. Andante con moto - Go (Osmo Vanska)

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Tombstone (Suzanne Vega)

What makes you laugh?
Another Satellite (XTC)

What makes you cry?
Crash Into the Sun (Jim White)

What do you love?
Shower Time & Glockenspiel (Dot Tape Dot)

What do you loathe?
Sugar Water (Cibo Matto)

What's sexy?
Sweet Li'l Thing (Eels)

What's the best advice you were ever given?
To Match the Sun (Jane's Addiction)

How should people be spending their money? (hint hint, do you have stuff to sell, or is there a cause you'd love to see people supporting)
Someday, Someway (Marshall Crenshaw)

Which woman/women have inspired you?
Angels (Robin Thicke)

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Parallel (Yuka Honda)

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!
Honeybear (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

Women's Month Interviews: Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby

How do we know each other?
We met in graduate school at the University of Connecticut Medieval Studies program.

How would you describe yourself?
Strong, determined, funny (I hope), creative educator.

In what part of the world are you located?
Northern Virginia - recently moved and very happy to be here.

Where can we find you on the web?
Facebook

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
My first self-identity was as a dancer, and I still take dance classes (ballet, tap). I'm both a creative artist and an academic.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
People think i'm organized and have it 'all together'

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Hmm, most proud of... I'm proud of having finished my PhD, having three kids and a job I love, and I'm particularly proud of two shows I've directed - Pippin and Midsummer Night's Dream.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Small ones - mounting a play for the Chester Cycle at University of Toronto 2010; actually putting up pictures in our house!

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
Students telling me that I'm a role model for them, as both a teacher and a mother

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Have a nice meal with people I love

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Teaching and/or playing with Pippa

What makes you laugh?
Pippa! hence the stress coping thing.

What makes you cry?
Seeing students or children excel at something for the first time (it's a good cry!)

What do you love?
Directing Shakespeare.

What do you loathe?
Miserable people.

What's sexy?
Talent, brains and confidence.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
Be a rainbow in somebody's clouds. (Maya Angelou - I'm misquoting, but it's along those lines)

How should people be spending their money?
Support the arts! support education!!

Which woman/women have inspired you?
Virginia Woolf, Jane Goodall, Maya Angelou (saw her speak in the fall - wow - see 'best advice' question)

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
I'd still work at my same job, but I'd pay off lots of debt (two mortgages!), put it away for my kids college education, and pay off some family members' mortgages.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are an amazing woman!

Women's Month Interviews: Peg

How do we know each other?
You gave a talk at a conference I organized.

How would you describe yourself?
I'm a 45 year old woman who has worked as a teacher or writer most of my adult life. I'm a passionate, liberal, creative and often cynical human being. I was raised as a Catholic but now identify as a neo-pagan or witch. I love gardening, singing and being outdoors in all weather.

In what part of the world are you located?
Albany, NY. I like it so far, but haven't made a lot of friends here yet.

Where can we find you on the web?
I'm on Facebook, and have a few blogs at blogspot including The Celluloid Bough and Orchards Forever.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I try to stand up for that is right as often as possible.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
I'm not as oblivious or aloof or self-absorbed as most people seem to think.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
I think I've had a positive impact on a lot of my students' lives.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
I want to keep writing books and would like to have a screenplay produced.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
My friend Julie once said I was "one of those people who is really nice, but also really fascinating."

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
I love some good booze, good food, and good friends.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Being outdoors or going for long walks.

What makes you laugh?
Silliness. Also, Monty Python.

What makes you cry?
Cruelty.

What do you love?
Nature, beauty, and selfless behavior.

What do you loathe?
Willful stupidity and manipulative behavior. Also oysters.

What's sexy?
Confidence, intelligence and long hair.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
When I was lonely after a break, a pagan friend once said "The Lord and Lady are always inside you." For some reason this didn't make much sense at the time but now I think it was wise.

How should people be spending their money?
There's a new law that will affect people who make handmade items for children, who won't be able to afford the new regulatory standards. So go online and buy as many handmade toys and blankets and sweaters as you can.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My teachers Patricia Hamula, Charlotte Spivack and Virginia Scott. Also any of my friends.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Do some traveling, buy some land, and a big house where all my friends could stay anytime they wanted. I'm not sure a million would cover all this.

Thanks for taking part in the project -- you are fabulous!

To Spring

O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Thro' the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell each other, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth,
And let thy holy feet visit our clime.

Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our love-sick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languished head,
Whose modest tresses were bound up for thee.

~ William Blake

Women's Month Interviews: Kim Clune

Isn't it great when students are still willing to speak to you after class (oh, and their degree!) is over?

How do we know each other?
You taught my Women and Spirituality class at The College of Saint Rose in 2007 and I invited you to a party knowing you were somewhat new in town. I’ve since enjoyed your 2008 Writers in Motion class, a study of author portrayals in film, and various Sigma Tau Delta readings, personal lunches, pub gatherings and our recent Brit Com Night.

How would you describe yourself?
I am a human and animal rights activist, a not-always-healthful vegetarian, an environmentalist, a political tracker (in the way one watches a train wreck with fascination and horror), a global citizen looking for cracks in cultural and ideological borders, a reader, writer, painter, designer, a computer geek and I can crochet.

In what part of the world are you located?
I live at the end of a mile-long, dead-end, dirt road on a small mountain at the outskirts of New York’s Capital district. Growing to love the remoteness of what was originally my husband’s log cabin living, I wouldn’t trade being here for anything.

Where can we find you on the web?
I can often be found at Twitter and Facebook, and I occasionally blog.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
Those who say that I ought to toughen up are the very people who cannot comprehend the strength it took to survive them.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
I have managed to partner with a wonderfully supportive man and sustain a healthy and beautiful long-term relationship contrary to marriage statistics in this country. I have also returned to college as an adult to study English Literature and recently graduated at the top of my class. While the grades were nice, and I certainly fought for them, the greatest accomplishment was learning to have faith in my ability to succeed.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
I’d like to take my new skills for a spin for the greater good. I will continue to write for Village Volunteers, a Seattle-based humanitarian aid organization, while fundraising to rebuild the fast deteriorating kindergarten school I visited in Have, Ghana last July. I also want to continue fostering dogs, taking part in home placements and to write for AnimaLovers.org. Since none of these activities actually pay, to find an equally meaningful and paying job is next on the agenda.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
The Ghanaian family who looked after me during my stay has also remained an active part of my life and motivation. These dear friends have often said to me, “You are a good sister.” It doesn’t get better than that.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
In public, I stay calm, cool and collected like, “Oh yeah. This thing just happened. Cool.” It’s a farce. Behind closed doors, I’m all like Tigger on methamphetamines.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
I typically chat up a good friend or scribble in my journal. I’m best when I blow everything out of my system with reckless abandon and allow myself the freedom to sort it out later.

What makes you laugh?
Innocent remarks of children before the imagination is hammered out of them, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Gladys Hardy, the antics of animals, and, yes, noisy bodily functions at inappropriate times

What makes you cry?
Crimes against humanity, animals in pain, feeling loved, leaving good friends, a good drama, feeling helpless, arguments and frustration

What do you love?
I love my husband, our life, our animals, the freedom of not having children, dinner with friends, working in my flower garden, social networks, vine-ripe tomato sandwiches with mayo, clean surfaces (Ab Fab, anyone?), a high-scoring turn in Scrabble, designing our home, throwing parties, traveling, singing loudly in the car, an occasional gin and tonic with lime, the smell of clean laundry, watching squirrels at the feeder, hiking, kayaking, being outdoors in every season but winter and spending winter evenings with a book by a fire.

What do you loathe?
I loathe intolerance, cruelty, fear, the inordinate number of crime-TV shows based on violence against women, slapstick humor, cold dishwater, cold tomato sauce, the fact that women everywhere loved Sarah Palin, a crappy internet connection and having to do things twice.

What's sexy?
Confidence and intellect with a healthy dose of humor, doing the right thing, a white button-down collar - partly unbuttoned

What's the best advice you were ever given?
“People will treat you like sh*t only as long as you let them.”

How should people be spending their money?
All I can say is that I support VillageVolunteers.org. Rather than dictating solutions and generating reports to the satisfaction of donors, they focus on grass-roots, culturally centered empowerment of Kenyan, Ghanaian, Indian and Nepalese village programs. These programs provide sustainable solutions to combat hunger and disease, educate women and children, support orphanages, etc. While 100% of every contribution goes to your program of choice, to truly help, (and Executive Director, Shana Greene, will never ask) contributions toward administrative costs are sorely needed.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My great grandmother, Therese; high school teachers Mrs. McDonald and Mrs. Hooge; Ani DiFranco; several of the Saint Rose faculty members, including Kate and Kim; my Ghanaian sister, Salome; and Executive Director of Village Volunteers, Shana Greene

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
I’d rebuild every crumbling school in Have, Ghana, provide cisterns and ceramic water filters for drinking water, fund AnimaLovers.org for the re-homing of dogs and cats, sink a ton into micro-financing through Kiva.org, start a network of resources for American teenaged girls being trafficked by classmates in their own home towns, build a fire escape deck off of our bedroom, buy my husband a little Catalina sailboat and a dog friendly membership to a sailing club on Lake George, get a set of iPhones and hide some cash under the mattress for retirement because we all know the market can’t help us now.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!
So are you, Kate. I’m so happy to know you.

Women's Month Interviews: May Chan

My colleague and fellow Sigma Tau Delta wrangler -- and not incidentally, Halloween fan -- May, photographed at the chocolate museum in Cologne (yum!)

How do we know each other?
We’re colleagues in the English Department at the College of Saint Rose, and I tend to stop by downstairs to chat in your office from time to time.

How would you describe yourself?
I tend to come across as a quiet person who seems to have rather conservative behaviors, especially when some people find out I’m a scholar of Victorian literature, and perhaps because my Connecticut childhood in Fairfield County affected my dress, behaviors, and even speech patterns. Add to this mix the Asian woman factor. But I do not believe in being read like a book, and I have sometimes surprised people with some of my interests and ideas. The surprise felt by others usually says more about them and their expectations, I think. I remember one friend in graduate school was often perplexed how my clothing choices would be so different from day to day; I think my biker leather jacket set off that comment.

In what part of the world are you located?
I am currently located in Albany, NY. This is a comfortable place and a reentry to life on the east coast for me, after many years of living in other places.

Where can we find you on the web?
I’m afraid I am not very visible, but you can find me on the department website.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I am extremely competitive when I get on a bicycle, which runs counter to my usual self.

What’s the most common mistake people make about you?
It has depended upon the season, I guess – it used to be that people thought I was an airhead. Now people think I’m boring. While I do have a brain, I do not think I should shove it on others.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
I am proud of having received my Ph.D., and am the first to do so in my family.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Books and essays to be written and published.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
I was told recently by two friends that I am extremely loyal and caring; one of these friends I have known for twenty-one years.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Going out for a meal is a great thing to do, and so is treating myself to a little gift. I guess it’s a “celebrate myself” act that I take.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Talking to a good friend is helpful, and so is getting out of town. Retail therapy never hurts. I was knitting to help cope with stress, and I’d like to get back to that soon.

What makes you laugh?
Watching dumb movies with friends, talking with friends from school, and watching my students reinterpret scenes from Victorian novels with modern interpretations.

What makes you cry?
That last scene in “Terms of Endearment” is a tearjerker. Those stories written for the New York Times Neediest Cases drive me crazy around the holidays because I always get a little weepy inside for the situations they feature.

What do you love?
Sunny weather, and snow. To have them both at the same time is acceptable. Food cooked by someone who cares for you, and to be able to cook for someone you care about is wonderful. I also love being in a city, and one of my favorite city places is Grand Central Terminal in New York City – everyone is going somewhere, and the space that enables such movement to happen is gorgeous.

What do you loathe?
I have a strong belief in fairness and a social contract between people that grants civility to each party no matter what is going on. Rudeness makes me extremely angry. I also loathe autocratic, tyrannical types.

What’s sexy?
Everyone looks great wearing padded biking shorts.

What’s the best advice you were ever given?
There’s no harm in asking.

How should people be spending their money?
I think that it’s easy to buy cheap stuff rather than spending a little more to buy something that is made well and lasts. I would like to see people spending money going out to eat, as meals are a way to bond with others and restaurants are usually local businesses. It would also be great to see people give more to local food banks and food pantries during this economically strained season.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My father’s mother and his two sisters. The three of them have overcome great odds to come to this country, and to keep the family together. Stories about carrying your sick child on your back to the country doctor, swimming Hong Kong harbor seven times, or marrying a paper son and leaving your family behind for America remind me that whatever I go through, these women have been heroic. Yet they also showed moral and physical strength must always come with kindness and generosity.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
I would probably give three-fourths of it away to charity, and to my family. But I need to buy a new laptop...

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!
Thank you!!

Women's Month Interviews: Kim Middleton

Next up, my colleague, bon vivant and fellow iPod Toucher, Kim.

How do we know each other?
Through our shared love for literature and new media. And sarcasm.

How would you describe yourself?
As someone who is deeply uncomfortable with this question. I didn’t grow up in an Asian American household without absorbing some fundamental values, the predominant one of which is: talking about yourself equals an embarrassing solipsism. This runs so absolutely counter to what we’re asked to do as academics and writers (self-promotion, confidently listing our skills, attributes, and accomplishments), that I often feel like I’m always doing the wrong one at the wrong time. And that might be the best description of me that I can articulate.

In what part of the world are you located?
I’m located in Albany, NY, the Northeast, the U.S., the northern hemisphere. It could be worse, and I should be grateful, I know, but it would be a lie to say that I don’t yearn, on a daily basis, for the western U.S. or the southwest.

Where can we find you on the web?
You can find me most days on Facebook, that great time suck of the new millennium. You can also find a more thoughtful, lapsed me at http://blogenabyme.wordpress.com. Gotta get back to that, sometime soon.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I hope that people don’t know how much work it is for me to be kind to them; my first instinct is almost always to be critical.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
Too many! I’d like to write a monograph. I’d like to work with an architect to design my own house. I’d like to be proficient on the acoustic guitar.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
I like these two: “Kim does not suffer fools gladly” and “you always err on the side of compassion.” Contradictory, no?

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Vigorous exercise. Having said that, I’m defining “best” as “thing that actually works to make me feel better.” Thus, my “best” method is not always the one I employ.

What makes you laugh?
Lots of things, actually. Absurdity, black humor, irony, puns. The Big Lebowski. Pynchon. Margaret Cho. Dr. Horrible.

What makes you cry?
Frustration.

What do you love?
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Joni Mitchell’s Blue. Sofia Coppola’s trilogy. Stella McCartney’s designs. Slurpees---preferably cherry.

What do you loathe?
People’s unwillingness to apply a consistent logic to problems, and/or consider a variety of alternatives. The word “no.”

What's sexy?
Li-Young Lee. And also: people who are passionate about what they do and seek out the connections between their own and others’ talents.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
Do the thing that you’re most interested in, and it will all work out.

How should people be spending their money?
If people have extra cash to drop and are looking for original artwork, I’m liking Etsy a lot these days. I love the idea of crafters and artists being able to sell their stuff without having to locate a distributor.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
How much time do you have? A short and eclectic sampling: Alice Waters, Martha Graham, Georgia O’Keefe (all women who have a vision, bring it to fruition, and live incredibly long, productive lives); my former professor, Kathy Ogren, who is a model of formidable intelligence, teaching in and out of the classroom, bravery and life-long learning; my mother, who somehow makes all of the people around her push themselves to be better.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Use it as seed money to start a boarding school in New Mexico for junior high and high school students based on alternative education principles (student-teacher contracts, narrative evaluations, edible classrooms). Or buy a studio apartment in San Francisco. I think I could do that for a million dollars. Maybe.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!
As are you, for coming up with this idea!! I’ve so enjoyed reading all of the interviews, and being a part of it!

Women's Month Interviews: Kira Brady

How do we know each other?
I’m in your Eng 566 grad class at St. Rose.

How would you describe yourself?
“I am an act of kneading, of uniting and joining that not only has produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings." – Gloria Anzaldua

I am a graduate student, a poet, a teacher, a redneck feminist, a socialist, and a female-bodied queer.

In what part of the world are you located?
Northeastern United States. I’m fairly convinced that I can be happy almost anywhere, but I’d love to wind up in the Southwest. I was born in Tucson.

Where can we find you on the web?
I’m on Facebook. I also recently began contributing to a blog called Femography. I don’t think my first post is even up yet, but you can find it there nevertheless.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I’m a great cook. And I can bake, too. I’m well-versed in vegetarian and vegan cuisine, gluten-free cooking, as well as in ordinary, non-restricted diets. Also, I was a figure skater for 12 years. I live with chronic pain. I love to rock climb.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
I think a lot of straight people who meet me for the first time assume that I’m straight. A lot of gay people who meet me for the first time assume that I’m a lesbian. I identify as queer. I’m working hard at (re)defining what that means to me. You might have to meet me at least two times before I delve into that a bit more.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
I’m the first person in my immediate family to have graduated from college, and I paid (and shall continue to pay!) for my education on my own. I feel so lucky to be able to pursue my education even further.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
I want to teach poetry, feminist theory, and post-colonial literature. I definitely want children. Publishing a book or two of poetry would be the proverbial cherry on top.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
It means a lot to me when people tell me that I’m good with kids. I’ve been asked to be a nanny by two different families, and I think that’s a big deal. You really have to trust someone to allow them in your life in such an intimate way.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
It depends. I’ve been known to break into booty-shaking victory dances. Usually sharing the news with the people closest to me and cooking a special dinner are enough celebration. Okay, I might do the victory dance while I cook.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Sleep, shop, scream, swim, or write.

What makes you laugh?
It could be anything. I’m a sucker for very intelligent but silly humor. Eddie Izzard is my favorite comedian – I literally quote him on a daily basis. Also AbFab.

What makes you cry?
Hrmm, the answer to this one is pretty revealing. I don’t usually cry at the times people are “supposed” to cry. Funerals, breakups, lost puppies – I can’t muster so much as a hard swallow. But OnStar commercials? “Ma’am help is on the way. I’ll stay on the line with you until they arrive.” That sh*t makes me cry.

What do you love?
Mint tea, the cold side of the pillow, nuts-and-bolts style volunteerism and community organizing – like stuffing envelopes and making phone calls, paisleys, hard cider, the beach, watching kids learn, country music, biking, the Electric Slide, freckles, the way babies smell, and cookies.

What do you loathe?
Apathy. Also brussels sprouts and yeast infections.

What's sexy?
Confidence. I’m also a sucker for strong shoulders, freckles, and a curl in either the upper or lower lip.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
“Live or die, but don’t poison everything.” – Anne Sexton

How should people be spending their money?
I’m not big on transactional activism. But if you feel passionately about donating money to a good cause, donate to something you’re personally connected to. Still, I’m always going to advocate donating body power over dollars. Except when it comes to shelters, for both humans and animals – they need straight up cash, yo.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My grandmother. Local community leaders. Muriel Rukeyser, Mary Gaitskill, and Tammy Wynette. Yep, Tammy Wynette.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
I’d buy you a monkey – haven’t you always wanted a monk-EY?!

Okay, but really, I’d pay off my medical debt, my student loan debt, and my non-specific debt. I’d buy a couple of bonds. I’d jet-set for a year, staying in hostels, being grungy, eating great food, writing, and hopping to a new country whenever I felt like it. I mean, I have always wanted to wash my skivvies in a park fountain in Paris. Then I’d give the rest of the money away to people who needed it. Also take you out to dinner. You did give me a million dollars after all.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are indeed fabulous!

Women's Month Interviews: Catherine L. Dumas

How do we know each other?
I had the pleasure to be a student in two of your classes during my undergrad at St. Rose: Writers In Motion & Medieval Lit on Film. We have continued our friendship enjoying intelligent conversations over libations and great food at our local pubs. Oh yeah, and we are neighbors, woo hoo.

How would you describe yourself?
I project a happy, free spirited, optimistic, easy-going persona. Some may see interpret this as me being carefree. That is not entirely the case. I suppose my persona is a defense mechanism that allows me to navigate easier through life. On the inside I am in a perpetual state of wanting to know everything. I read people and the world incessantly trying to find what is really going on--I do care about too much. I am a realist. I am unconventional when it comes to normative societal dictates: sex, religion, class, and gender. I asked a good friend of mine to describe me and he said I am disarming.

In what part of the world are you located?
I am currently living in Albany, New York. I was born and raised here in various parts of the area. I left Albany after my first year of college to live in NYC. I landed a lucrative sales job in New Jersey and lived there about 12 years. I moved back home shortly after 911 to go back to school. It was the best decision I ever made. I am currently pursuing a dual graduate degree at SUNY Albany. Yes, I am thrilled to be right where I am right now. I will probably leave again after I graduate--but Albany works for me now.

Where can we find you on the web?
Facebook and cathy2cool

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I am an avid people reader. It's a knack I picked up when I was in sales. No, it probably was a survival skill I have been honing since I was a child. You can tell a lot about someone by looking into their eyes -- and actively listening to them.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
That I am just a sex symbol. I have a brain too, duh. LOL.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Leaving a high paid sales job, going back to school and being in grad school. Oh yeah, and not needing to be in a relationship to validate my existence.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
I know it sounds cheesy, but I would like to make a difference. Part of me wants to teach, part of me thinks that I should do it through writing. I feel I have something I need to say -- just don't know what it is just yet. I have just entered the realm of Information Science. I am being conservative by doing this. My heart would be to study English, Cultural Studies, critical pedagogy perhaps. I am learning more about the inequities of the current educational system here in the US. It is making my blood flow. I just need something I can sink my teeth into. The rest will come.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
People don't compliment me. Or if they do maybe I don't hear them. [You don't hear them!]

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
I call my mom, my brother & my Dad...Then I party like a rock star...no, seriously. I like to celebrate with friends and family. A nice dinner, great food & wine...

What's your best method for coping with stress?
I work out to prevent stress. I also ski in the winter and sail in the summer...takes it all away. Oh yeah, ice cream works too. Sometimes I write.

What makes you laugh?
Almost everything. If you know me you know I love to laugh. I even laugh at things I probably shouldn't. Oh yeah, and politicians.

What makes you cry?
Sad movies. That is about the only time I cry. Crying wasn't part of my upbringing. I guess I blame it on my English mum. I do feel immense sadness when I see hurt in people's eyes. I am very sensitive to that -- the downside of my people reading skills

What do you love?
I love to: ski, read, my independence, Led Zeppelin, Ice cream, write at times, find people I can talk to, sail, cool professors, museums, films, plays, the seasons, comfortable silence, my time alone, learn, cook, travel, fly -- my fave parts are taking off and landing.

What do you loathe?
Tomatoes…when I was a little girl I had an aunt who forced me to eat one when she was babysitting us -- mom was in Hawaii. I rebelled -- mom never forced us to eat things. I loathe people who are cruel, superficial, and/or condescending. I loathe country music, bad professors, television, politics, predators, and coconut anything, to name a few.

What's sexy?
Johnny Depp, Richard Gere in American Gigilo, brilliant minds, people who are comfortable with their bodies.
What's the best advice you were ever given?
I guess you can’t really classify this as direct advice but I will never forget my 11th grade Trig teacher whom I overheard tell a female classmate who asked her this question (about me) “what does she have that I don’t?” The teachers reply was “A college education”. Maybe it was an offhanded way of getting advice -- but I have never forgotten it.

How should people be spending their money?
Frugally.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My mother, my Yaya (Greek for grandmother--we aren't Greek, long story), Dr Helen Staley...my first college English Professor at Sage...Dr. Richardson, my English teacher at Albany High. Some of my English professors at St. Rose—they know who they are.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
I would travel to every country in the world...I know that is selfish. Maybe I am not so wonderful.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are indeed fabulous!

Women's Month Interviews: Jenise

Jenise and I will be team-teaching a course this fall on the Middle Ages. It ought to be great fun. I've never co-taught a course, so I'm really looking forward to this.

How do we know each other?
We are colleagues and friends.

How would you describe yourself?
I am intense, introspective, and hard-working, though lately I have been quite distracted. I was born discontented and never find satisfaction or lasting happiness. I am a high achiever and perfectionist, who feels morally obliged to follow through on promises and see a task/goal through to completion, but am finding it difficult to sustain this lifelong pattern nowadays. I am responsible to a fault and a good and loyal friend. I am probably too trusting and generous, and see the good in people, particularly those I love. I do not give my friendship to many or too easily, yet when I do it is genuine and lasting. I am honest and find it difficult to deceive others, even when it is in my best interest to do so. I would like people to see me for who I am I guess, despite my faults.

In what part of the world are you located?
Albany, NY. I like it except for the weather. I am never happy in cold dark places and prefer a warm tropical environment. I like my job and the friends I have made among my colleagues, who are some of the finest human beings I have had the privilege to know.

Where can we find you on the web?
I am on Facebook.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
I don't know really, it is difficult to see ourselves as others do. On a practical level, they should know that I have a serious hearing/processing disorder, and struggle hard to understand what others say to me in social settings. Those who do not know this may think I am snobbish because I have ignored them when I really did not hear them, or may think I am not too bright because my responses can be off base as I try to piece together what was said or asked. I miss much of what others say to me in conversation because of background noise or low tone of voice. I sometimes wear a hearing aid, but it is becoming obsolete. My condition is hereditary, stretching back several generations on my father's side. My father has been deaf since his early seventies; one day I will be too.

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
I don't know really. I have been told by different people that I am distant, intimidating and come across as unapproachable. I have never understood why anyone would think these things, but I go out of my way to counter such misreadings of my personality.

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
I guess that would have to be my PhD and my children.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
I must publish at least one book; I have promised to do so, to the publisher, my adviser, and my colleagues. I must therefore follow through.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
I have had many which I do not believe are accurate or deserved. Someone I love deeply told me I was beautiful a couple of times, but I don't know if he meant it. I suppose that was the best, at least it meant the most to me at the time.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
I don't believe I have ever really celebrated anything great that has happened to me, at least not that I can recall. I am not one to throw myself parties or celebrations, but I do so for others because I derive great pleasure by doing so.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
I smoke, and like to drink wine, talk to friends, and try to maintain focus and keep working. Stress used to be a driving force that made me produce, now it is starting to wear me down because it is combined with ongoing emotional trauma.

What makes you laugh?
Many things, but it depends on my mood at the time. I am moody but try not to show it.

What makes you cry?
On a personal level, betrayal and inconsideration by someone I trusted, and also to see my children disappointed or hurt.

What do you love?
My children, close friends, humanity in a general sense. And history of course.

What do you loathe?
False hypocritical people who posture and cannot match words with actions; capitalism, fascism, racism, sexism, and injustice in all its forms.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
I don't know; I have been given lots of good advice over the years, and most times have not followed it.

How should people be spending their money?
I think they should be careful about spending because no one is immune to misfortune these days. Those who have money perhaps should help others who have less in other parts of the world.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
Ah, many. In history women like Alexandra Kollontai and Rosa Luxembourg, two socialist feminist intellectuals. In my own life, my mother, my dissertation mentor, my colleague Angela who is brilliant, beautiful and a wonderful mother. I admire strong women who persevere against the odds and maintain dignity in the face of adversity.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Pay my debts off, do something to help secure my children's future, travel on breaks, help a couple of friends in need, and give the rest to help alleviate the poverty and suffering of women and children in West Africa, probably through funding maternity clinics, education, and micro-loans.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are indeed fabulous! I'm lucky to have you as a colleague.
T'was my pleasure.

Happy St. Urho Day!

March 16 is the day we remember how St. Urho drove the grasshoppers from the vineyards of Finland with the traditional cry, "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!" or "Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to the devil!" The fabulous Queen of Everything has designed a fantastic logo for St. Urho day merchandise that you MUST have. Buy one of her items today, and tell those grasshoppers where to go!

Women's Month Interviews: Moira E. Casey

How do we know each other?
Well, graduate school friends and colleagues primarily, but I’m sure you think of me as the inspiration behind “OtHello Kitty.” [ha ha ha -- it's true!]

How would you describe yourself?
I describe myself as smart and well-read, but approachable, practical, compassionate and fun. I can be a little scatterbrained and indecisive, but I like to think that these traits keep me free and open to all possibilities.

In what part of the world are you located?
I’m in Southwest Ohio, and while I don’t think I would say I’m unhappy to be here, I miss the East Coast and my East Coast friends and family. I miss the OCEAN!

Where can we find you on the web?
Facebook.

What don't people know about you that they ought to know?
Depends on which people. I guess they ought to know that I’m kind of shy, but I’m very friendly when people reach out to me and I genuinely enjoy people (mostly).

What's the most common mistake people make about you?
I don’t know — I think some people might think I’m snooty when I’m really just shy (see above). I think people often don’t take me seriously because I’m a short-ish woman who likes to laugh and have fun. Why should laughing and having fun be incompatible with intellectual ability and career ambition?

What are you most proud of having accomplished so far?
Earning my PhD, landing a tenure-track job, and getting tenure. It was all incredibly hard, but I did it. I’m also very proud to own my horse and be a good, capable equestrienne.

What ambitions do you have ahead of you?
I’d like to make it to full professor and publish a book. I’m also working on owning a second horse!

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
The best compliments are usually from my students, who will occasionally go out of their way to tell me how much I helped them or how much my course changed their ways of thinking. A teacher can’t ask for much more than that.

If something great happens to you, how do you celebrate?
Dinner and drinks with friends.

What's your best method for coping with stress?
Talking! Venting to friends and family. But riding and taking care of my horse helps too!

What makes you laugh?
Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin. Kittens at the horse barn playing with stuff or doing just about anything. My cat Simon sneezing on my other cat and making her run away. My Pakistani friend doing German, French, and Indian accents.

What makes you cry?
PMS! And also, human rights violations, animals in danger or being mistreated, and other people crying. I’m a member of ForeverMorgans, a group that rescues Morgan horses who are in danger of being shipped to slaughter. The people in the group shared a story about a little Morgan mare with ribbons braided into her mane that they were unable to rescue. They call her “Ribbons,” and they talk about how, surely, some little girl loved Ribbons, and yet, they couldn’t save her from slaughter. Ever since “Ribbons,” they say, if they commit to rescuing a horse, they succeed. That story never fails to make me cry; I’m tearing up just writing it.

What do you love?
Ben and Jerry’s Karamel Sutra ice cream. Oh, and, my family, my friends, my pets and springtime.

What do you loathe?
Freezing rain and the Miami Middletown Campus Event Management Calendar.

What's sexy?
Clothing that fits perfectly. And Hugh Jackman.

What's the best advice you were ever given?
“No effort is ever wasted.” It might not seem like advice, but think about it...

How should people be spending their money?
People should pay off their bad debt before they do anything. I have trouble respecting people who carry credit card balanaces and don’t have to. But if you have some extra, please donate to your local equine rescue organization.

Which woman/women have inspired you?
My mother, two of my undergraduate professors (Lahna Diskin and Jo Carney), and several of my graduate professors. I’ve known a lot of well-educated women in my life and they’ve almost all been inspirational.

If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do?
Honestly, although I’d like to say that I’d do something extraordinary to save the world or something, I’d probably buy a big horse farm and rescue as many horses from slaughter and abuse as I could. I’d probably also try to establish some scholarships for students here at Miami Middletown.

Thank you so much for being part of this celebration: you are fabulous!