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By Kristal Kinloch-Taylor & Veronica Watson

The February Faculty interview highlights Dr. Veronica Watson, an esteemed English Professor and Department Chair. Currently, Dr. Watson is captivating minds in her graduate course, ENGL 791/891 Afro-Futurism, where she leads 15 students through rich and deep discussions in the online classroom. The atmosphere is vibrant and engaging, with conversations delving into profound questions from the very first class, fostering a dynamic learning environment. Looking ahead, her expertise will continue to inspire as she gears up to teach Southern Literature to undergraduate students in the upcoming fall semester.

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CFD: Can you elaborate on your role as the Chair of the Department of English at �鶹��ý and how it aligns with your passion for equity and access in higher education?

Dr. Watson: Department chairs at �鶹��ý are the “CEOs” of the department. We are academic administrators who have primary responsibility for the development of quality programs in instruction, research, and professional service within the department. That’s the official job description. What drew me to this position is the ability to participate in strategic change initiatives to ensure that we are delivering high quality education to �鶹��ý students and creating employment conditions that enable faculty and staff to bring their full and best selves to the job. Those goals are fundamentally about equity and access for me.

Our job as educators is to meet students where they are and to facilitate and support their growth in ways that allow them to pursue their dreams. We start there, with a sincere effort to recognize the strengths that students bring to our classrooms, and from there we think deeply about pedagogical strategies that will help them to flourish in our class and beyond. We start by understanding that we create access for our students when we pursue equity in our teaching philosophies and practices.

What enables and encourages faculty to do that work, in my opinion, is a work environment where they feel safe, seen and heard. So, the structures I pursue as an academic administrator are rooted in getting input and seeking collaboration with my faculty colleagues. I try to listen well and create spaces where we can dream together about the future of our department and how to create more opportunities for students. Equity and access are the anchors of that work, too.

CFD: As the Ruth M. and Perry E. Morgan Endowed Professorship in Southern Literature, how do you integrate your expertise into your teaching and contribute to the academic community?

Dr. Watson: I’m just beginning to consider these questions myself! The first six months have really been about learning the administrative responsibilities and systems at �鶹��ý. Next fall, though, I will teach an undergraduate majors class in southern literature, which will be the first time it has been offered in a while. I’m really excited. I want to integrate VA texts, authors or contexts into the class, so I’ll be doing that research and reading over the summer. I’m hoping to find a couple of pieces that local students will be able to connect to because it is closer to home for them.

This summer I’ll also begin to visit historical societies and museums in the area and to meet faculty and community experts in the southern experience in VA. Fundamentally I am a public humanities scholar, so I hope this work will begin to help me see opportunities to connect with others who are preserving and seeking to understand VA’s evolving sense of itself as southern. Over time these will be key resources for my �鶹��ý classes and opportunities for me to contribute to the larger university community.

CFD: With over 25 years in higher education, what specific strategies have you implemented to promote graduate career preparation and professional development among students?

Dr. Watson: This topic is so close to my heart! For the last 5-7 years I’ve been working with various people/programs connected to my professional organization, the Modern Language Association, to really think about humanities graduate education in the 21^st century. I’ve started from a recognition that the professional landscape for PhDs in my field has dramatically changed in the last twenty years. And, I would argue, the needs and interests of undergraduate students are changing in light of shifting employment trends more broadly. So, we need to think about what career preparation in humanities graduate programs means in light of those larger contexts.

I’ll say here what I say everywhere: I believe so strongly in what we do as English Studies professionals that I want to see us not only in the classroom, but also the boardroom. I want to see us in education, yes, but also healthcare, government, entertainment, technology, policy-making, and corporate America. I want our skillsets and mindsets in every industry we want to pursue, and I believe the abilities and expertise we bring to the table can enhance any organization’s operations.

Part of what I do in my own graduate classes is try to help students to understand the larger ecosystem of humanities-based work that exists in our communities, which provides a much greater breadth of career possibilities than they might otherwise recognize. I encourage them to think about “teaching,” which is what many graduate students do or want to do, in those different contexts so they can begin to appreciate how their professional training can be adapted for those other audiences and spaces. We consider what it might mean, for instance, to use one’s skills in academic or publishing, a public or private humanities organization, or academic adjacent fields like faculty development or sponsored research offices. These are meaningful and fulfilling paths that require the kind of know-how that we gain in graduate school.

I will often also have them develop and refine innovative assignments that might better appeal to 21^st century students who have grown up on a steady diet of screens and gamified or entertainment-based information. We try to grapple with what needs to happen in our classrooms to equip them with an adaptable set of skills so that they can be successful in careers that are yet to emerge. And we wrestle with the complex questions around what it means to “teach literature” to students who often have not read a full-length novel by the time they enter our classes, or who enjoy their literature side-by-side with movie adaptations, Tik-Tok BOOKtalk and #Bookstagram content, and AI that can produce a decent analysis quicker than they can.

I believe, as so many others have also concluded, that professional development for graduate students has to look different now than it did 50 years ago, especially for students in the humanities. They need to understand and appreciate how the skills they develop can be used in a variety of contexts, to be equipped to speak to diverse audiences in ways that are accessible and useful, and to be prepared to advocate for the value of the humanities, no matter where their professional journey takes them.

CFD: Your work involves exploring the social uses of African American literature. How do you believe literature can contribute to addressing contemporary social challenges, specifically related to racial justice and human rights?

Dr. Watson: Literature gives us a window into other lives and ways of thinking. It can help us to understand and empathize with people who have had a very different path, a different context that has shaped them. It can help us to understand those differences and how we are shaped by our particular circumstances, choices, and life circumstances. What once was distant and alien can, through literature, seem less so. This truth about literature is one of the reasons, I believe, that so many culture wars are waged, at least in part, on the level of what books people have access to. Banned books, book burnings, books as contraband, criminalizing the teaching various marginalized stories, these actions are all evidence of the power of literature to shift perspectives in ways that recognize and support a broader range of human rights. Literature doesn’t address those social challenges directly so much as it supports changes in minds and hearts that can lead to committed action for social change.

CFD:  In your role as an author and co-editor, how do your publications contribute to current discussions on race, whiteness, and literature, especially with "The Souls of White Folks" and "Unveiling Whiteness in the 21st Century"?

Dr. Watson: I still find myself being surprised at the range of ways that Souls, in particular, is being used in my field and beyond! Google Scholar indicates Souls has been cited by scholars around the world (e.g. Kenya, Canada, Turkey, the U.S., to name a few) and from a variety of disciplines, such as literature, medical humanities, education, sociology, communication, and psychology. The range of fields that have engaged the work suggests that is has, in fact, been regarded as theoretical work that offers important insights to racial construction in the U.S. According to the Library of Congress master database (WorldCat), it is owned by approximately 1300 libraries worldwide.

The impact of Unveiling is a little harder to quantify since it is a collection of ten articles with substantial introductions from top scholars in their fields. But even that collection is owned by approximately 800 libraries worldwide.

More generally I think what those two works have done is demonstrate that there is still much to unpack about how whiteness is constructed in national and international contexts, how it morphs and adapts to maintain its ascendency (often to the detriment of BIPOC peoples), and how it stubbornly sticks to our social and individual psyches, even in the face of decades of concerted attempts to dislodge it. I think these works, and so many others since make a compelling case for why we need to keep at this work, as one arm of a multipronged approach to create more just societies where all people have the safety and opportunity to flourish.

CFD: How do you envision integrating your wealth of experience and research into the academic environment at our institution, fostering an environment of intellectual growth and inclusivity?

Dr. Watson: I’m beginning to explore this question too! There’s also already so much good work going on at �鶹��ý, my first answer is just to look for opportunities to be supportive of what’s already happening in other spaces.  But one of my faculty, Prof. Michelle Heart, and someone she’s worked with, Dr. Alvin Holder, have approached me with a promising opportunity that’s in line with work that I did in a previous lifetime. We’re now in the process of convening an exploratory conversation with a number of people to see how some English courses might be leveraged to support STEM and healthcare students, especially students of color, to prepare for research and internship opportunities in those fields. Research shows that most first-generation students and students of color will not self-select to pursue those opportunities, so to engage those populations we have to be intentional in our outreach and provide supports that help them develop identities as researchers, healthcare professionals, and scientists. I’m excited to think about how courses in our department might be cornerstones for that work, especially since a majority of undergraduates will take courses with us through the general education curriculum.

CFD: Welcome to Norfolk. What do you enjoy most about the Hampton Roads area?

Dr. Watson: Thank you. Well, let’s see. Oceans, beautiful vistas, lots of great restaurant options (aspiring foodie here!), good cultural scene (arts, live music, festivals). What’s not to love?!