In the Spotlight: Laura Williamson

I did my undergrad degree at Rutgers College, within Rutgers University, in New Jersey. And then graduate school at the University of Michigan. My Ph.D. is in English language and literature. I’m an early modernist, which means I focus on 16th- and 17th-century British lit. I work on interdisciplinary kinds of projects, combining literature and history, the foundational fields of Humanistic Studies. The job ad for Saint Mary’s caught my eye, and now I’ve been here 15 years.

In Humanistic Studies, our courses are totally discussion-based. Especially at the upper level, where students take related courses in literature and history at the same time. This approach involves a lot of project-based learning—some digital projects, some group projects. These projects are designed for both an internal academic audience and an outward-facing one. Digital literacy is important: in all my courses, students design a website reflecting varying levels of investment and engagement. These websites then become part of their personal portfolios when they graduate.

Some people question the value that literature and history classrooms will bring to students in terms of future employment, internships, and so on. I want students to ask that question, too. I want students to understand why the conversations we’re having about 17th-century literature or ancient Greece are relevant to the kind of conversations we’re having in today’s world. I also teach in the Digital Public Humanities minor here at the College, and one of my courses asks some crucial questions: Why is the production of cultural knowledge important? Why are critical thinking and analysis important? Where do data science and the humanities intersect? That course came out of conversations with Humanistic Studies seniors and recent alumnae. In fact, their questions about the relevance of Italian Renaissance literature or medieval English literature to fields in web design and data analysis led to the development of an entire minor. And already, only two years in, we have established community partnerships and relationships with various entities in South Bend and beyond: the St. Joseph County Public Library, the Civil Rights Heritage Center, the Elkhart County Historical Museum, the South Bend Civic Theatre, and the Michiana Jewish Historical Society. Lots of different groups!

I’m going to start with the most local, and that is the importance of my department. I have two phenomenal colleagues whom I respect a great deal, and we work together exceptionally well. They’re both historians, so I get to work every day with people who are not just in my own research area. Also, I feel very fortunate to have worked on a public humanities project with my colleagues Sarah Noonan in the English Department and Jessalynn Bird in Humanistic Studies on the archive of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. We received a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges to showcase that archive and connect it to an issue of contemporary concern. We focused on displaced peoples—refugees across the world—and the Sisters’ historic relief efforts in responding to their needs. That really helped me to connect to the social justice imperative behind what the Sisters have always done, not just in terms of founding this College but also with regard to the work that they do quite modestly and quietly all over the world. That made me feel more connected to the fiery feminist underbelly of this place.

When it first started, the Humanistic Studies Department was called the Christian Culture Program. Back in the ’50s and the ’60s, program founder Bruno Schlesinger invited speakers, scholars, and experts in their fields to campus to give talks to students. That program was reinvigorated in the 2000s as the Christian Culture Lecture Series with the support of Don and Susan Fitzgerald Rice ’61. Now, thanks to a generous endowment, it will exist in perpetuity as the Francis A. McAnaney Humanities Lecture. That is one of the many highlights of my work here at Saint Mary’s. I coordinate that lecture. We have had some really big names. Last year, we had the US Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. Our next event will be on February 11, 2025. It will be a double bill centered on women who work on ancient Greek literature—novelist Madeline Miller, who wrote Circe, a retelling of Odysseus’ encounter with Circe the witch in The Odyssey, and Emily Wilson, who was the first woman to translate The Odyssey. So, I get to bring these wonderful speakers to campus! And we get to share them with the South Bend community through outreach to the local public library system and local high schools.

Travel. My research is on travel literature! Just this week I was talking to three different people who were traveling to Iceland, and I want to go to Iceland. I want to go to South America. I want to go to the Middle East. I want to go to East Asia. I have so many places I want to go, at some point bringing my two daughters with me. Also, I have recently started writing poetry. I think in your midlife you sort of have these moments where you think,‘Okay, and now what?’ I started learning piano a couple of years ago as an adult, and I had to give it a break. I want that back. It felt like another language. 

I can tell you the ones that I gifted just this past year. Sandra Cisneros has a new book of poetry that I’ve gifted to people. Ada Limón’s books of poetry. I have gifted Circe many times. Also, Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell. In terms of nonfiction, I love giving people Wintering by Katherine May. 

That’s an easy one for me. I teach Latin dance as a side gig. And I have been lucky enough to attend a couple of live performances of salsa music. Last February, I got to see a Cuban band called Timbalive out of Miami in Chicago. They were amazing!