Erica
A C Cooper Fellow and Tutor in English Language & Literature
I come from Atlanta, Georgia originally, but have lived in England since 2011 (my husband is British and we moved to the UK for his job). I first came to Oxford in 2012 to do a four year career development fellowship at Keble—after which I came Teddy, my forever home! Outside of work I take care of my two kids, my dog, and my allotment on Port Meadow, which is filled with cut flowers. I love flowers and flower arranging—and poems about flowers too.
I am an academic because I love poetry and wanted to spend my working life thinking about it, writing about it, reading it, and talking about it with other people. I write my own poems, too, and although I consider my creative work very separate from my critical work (they come from different parts of my brain, it seems!), I know it is a privilege to be able to merge my avocation with my vocation on a daily basis.
I’ve been at Teddy for five years now and these have been some of the happiest of my life! Sitting with my students in the graveyard reading Romantic or Classical poetry in the sunshine is a luxury every Trinity term. But even winter is beautiful here: I’ll never forget when Susan, our wonderful gardener, gave several of us a tour of the college snowdrops in their annual February show. Visiting the top of the library tower one spring, and seeing the rest of Oxford’s spires from our central vantage point, was meaningful in my first year here, too. But probably my favourite event of the year at Teddy is fresher’s parents evening! Meeting my students’ parents is always hilarious and revealing in unexpected ways.
What do you think when you hear ‘Women of the Hall’? What does the Hall mean to you?
The Hall has given me an opportunity to express who I am in various ways—as a teacher, a colleague, a poet. This is the first job I have had where I really feel confident that my quirks and eccentricities are valued: it’s okay to be yourself in this place. What a relief! I hope my students feel that way too. Nor has being a woman here ever felt like a challenge to me; our SCR isn’t old-fashioned the way it sometimes can be at other colleges. We’re squarely in the 21st century at Teddy, despite sitting on the oldest educational site in the city!