focus on faculty roberta davidson Professor of English robertadavidson met her husband in a maximum-security prison.the specialist in medieval literature later co-wrote a book with him, “macbeth Formurderers,” about her experiences teachingshakespeare to inmates at the washingtonstate penitentiary inwalla walla. Whitman Magazine: let’s get one thing Well, Whitman students are very nice brains are like a database we can access at straight: your husband, John Kerwin, people, and tend to be a little too deferen- any time. I know that I, and most of my wasn’t serving time when you met him? tial to one another in classroom discus- colleagues, have to re-read every text we Roberta Davidson: oh, no. He was volun- sions, where they are hesitant to critique teach every time we teach it in order to re- teering, like me. He was teaching commu- one another’s ideas. In maximum security member the things you talk about in a nications classes and ran the closed-cir- at the pen, my classes were comprised of classroom as opposed to the general feel- cuit TV station, where the inmates were white separatists and black Muslims, good ing you have about a text. responsible for much of their own pro- ol’ boys and Native Americans, gang gramming. The prison was the only place bangers from rival gangs, rapists and men other than your office, where do you like in Walla Walla with a TV studio. The in- incarcerated for a range of violent crimes, to go on campus to relax? mates saved their money to build one. most often murder. Excessive deference When I’m not teaching or talking to stu- was not their problem. dents, especially now that I can do so How did you decide to teach the finer much research online, I usually go home. points of Shakespeare to inmates? What is your favorite class to teach at I have two one-year-oldlabrador retriev- I wrote my dissertation on Sir Thomas Whitman? ers who feel like it’s their mission to de- Malory. He wrote “le Morte D’Arthur” one thing I like about teaching at a liberal stroy the house if they’re left alone. I like (“The Death of Arthur”) while in prison. arts school like Whitman is that I’m able to climb on my couch with my laptop, and That probably got me interested in prison. to explore new ideas and ask new ques- 200 pounds of dog, and research right “le Morte D’Arthur” is the book from tions. So I love teaching medieval topics, there. which nearly every adaptation and film teaching about chivalry. I also like teach- about King Arthur is based. Writing from ing Chaucer, which I do every other year. As a lover of literature, what books do you prison affected Malory. It shifted his Chaucer is so hard that it’s fun. He’s the go back to over and over again? thinking about what it means to be a hero medieval James Joyce. To relax I read murder mysteries. There’s from someone who is stronger than any- this weird affinity that medievalists have one else to one who can endure more than What are the biggest misconceptions for murder mysteries. I can’t explain it. anyone else. Whitman students have about what it’s But I like to read about murder to help me like to be a professor? fall asleep. How would you compare your students at Students don’t realize what terrible memo- Whitman to your students at the ries we have. They assume we’ve absorbed — Edward Weinman Penitentiary? every fact we’ve ever read and that our July 2012 43
Whitman Magazine July 2012
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