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Literature and Writing Department
College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences (CHABSS)
Literature and Writing Department

February 2021

Professor Mary Stewart

Professor Mary Stewart

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  • What's your favorite book to read for fun?
    Nora K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy
  • What's your favorite book to teach?

    Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

  • How do you spend your free time?

    I love to cook—since the pandemic started, my partner and I actually started playing “recipe roulette,” where we use a random number generator to lead us to pages in cookbooks, and then we have to make whatever we find. I’ve particularly enjoyed cooking out of Bottom of the Pot by Naz Deravian!

    I’m also a big fan of any kind of outdoor activity—here in San Marcos I’ve particularly enjoyed hiking, kayaking, and boogie boarding.

  • What is your biggest literary inspiration?

    That’s an interesting question. I’d not call him an inspiration, but an author who had an important impact on my life is James Joyce. After I finished my undergraduate degree, I moved to England to pursue an MA in 20th century literature, and, at the time, I thought I wanted to become a Joyce scholar. The course of the program actually made me realize that I didn’t want to be a literary scholar. Instead, I found composition pedagogy as my true passion. I changed gears, and wound up pursuing my PhD in Education instead of in Literature.

  • What's your cure for writer's block?

    I rely a lot on structure. At the beginning of a writing project, I create a to-do list that distributes the work over several weeks, or even months, depending on the project. This allows me to give myself manageable writing goals—so, on a given day, I only have to write one section of the literature review or revise the conclusion. This means I’m not trying to hold the whole project in my head at once, which is usually when I get overwhelmed and experience writer’s block.

    The other thing I do if I’m struggling to figure out what to write about is to go do some reading. Inevitably, I’ll get inspired by something I’ve read and that helps me jump back into writing.

  • What are you working on outside of class?

    I’ve actually just published a webtext in Kairos that I had a lot of fun making (I worked from a Bootstrap template to write the code). It explores the ways video interfaces like Zoom can create opportunities for giving students power and authority in student-teacher conferences, and reflects on the nature of “space” and “place” in these online interactions.

    I’ve also been working with a four-person research team for the last five years. We’ve surveyed and interviewed and observed lots of hybrid and online first-year writing students and instructors, asking questions about how to build community in technology-mediated classrooms. We’ve written a couple of articles about our findings, and we’re now turning our attention to a book project. I love to write collaboratively!