This Thursday, October 27 is our next English Lunch Table! Be quick to RSVP and score a free lunch and riveting conversation with Professor Swidzinski and Professor Buck-Perry.
I sat down with Swidzinski and Buck-Perry to get a preview of possible discussion for Thursday: Who are they really? What are they reading? What’s up with the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy? What’s the best Bowl at The Commons?
What do students need to know about you, especially if they’ve never had a class with you?
Swidzinski: “I’m the resident poetry person… I don’t have a favorite… but on this day at this hour it’s probably Adrienne Rich, because I was rereading some Adrienne Rich poetry.”
Buck-Perry: “I guess I’m the resident generalist [for teaching ENG 112], that’s why I teach nearly everything. I know a little about a lot.”
(Editor’s Note: You should also know, Swidzinski always has a killer shirt-sweater combo, and Buck-Perry was proclaimed “a life saver” by a grateful Bio professor who said he owes his career to her.)
What are you looking forward to sharing with students at this lunch: any good books or cool topics?
B-P: “I see this lunch more as getting to know students, not them getting to know us… I just finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.”
S: “I heard that was really good!”
B-P: “Such a book of suffering.”
S: “Right now I’m reading… James Shapiro’s A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599.”
(Here we diverged on a brief tangent about the Shakespeare authorship conspiracy.)
B-P: “I want to hear about how their experience is going. I’m curious about their year.”
S: “What I like is getting a sense of where students are coming from and what they want to do and are looking forward to, not just while they’re in class.”
B-P: And what kind of questions they have. Like how we and our experience might help them.”
What’s your favorite thing to eat at The Commons?
B-P: “I like the Global. And Bowls… I’m a sucker for [the mac salad] opposite the chicken.”
(We discuss the best qualities of various Bowls. In depth.)
S: “I normally just get… I’m usually hungry. Also the department is paying for it, so… I don’t just get a sandwich, I get a plate or a bowl of something… I’ll get the lobster.”
This Lunch Table is on Thursday October 27th, 12pm.
The first 4 students to RSVP by email to Swidzinski/Buck-Perry/Brassard will be treated to lunch by the English Department.