He plays euchre in his spare time, enjoys eating Ethiopian food, and loves the theatre. My Interpretation and Argument professor, Geoffrey Glover, is anything but boring, proven by his class topic: What is the status of race in the United States? The class is already engaging, fruitful because of the diversity of it.
For some, 76-101, lovingly nicknamed “Interp” is the dreaded class of freshman schedules. It involves argument mapping and plenty of writing. Professor Glover encourages students to treat assignments for the class as a genre – science fiction, westerns, crime. Genres hold sets of rules and characteristics and the class is essentially teaching students to write in a genre. Students should also recognize revision as part of the writing process and plan on doing more than one revision, be it with academic development or friends.
For many, Interpretation and Argument is not the only class that is stressful. Professor Glover has two pieces of advice for tackling the infamous Carnegie Mellon workload: communicate with instructors, and learn to manage time. He believes communication is so important so students can really learn what is being asked, and how to do things properly. He encourages overcoming the fear of asking to be in the know. And then there is time
management, something most college students struggle with. Students find themselves with no time. So, Professor Glover recommends prioritizing tasks: essential, necessary, recommended, optional. Students must also recognize that while at Carnegie Mellon, there will be some sort of work to do every day.
Professor Glover chose his topic for Interpretation and Argument because it relates to the work he is doing for his PhD. He focuses on the way race is constructed relative to many things such as critical and racial identity, the representation of race in the media and the reflexive relations race has with the media and pop culture. In short, the argument of race underpins what he studies.
But, his interests span past the topics he teaches. He loves scientific fiction, be it in movie or book form. He reads everything, from theoretical works on subjectivity and identity to the works of Octavia Butler. And, he has even read the menu of Skibo a hundred (or more) times. He owns a great Pironese dog and loves walking him.
It was evident Professor Glover’s passion is in his teaching. He described days teaching at an adult-based education school where he taught an 86 year old illiterate woman to read at a third-grade level. He became a part of her success and when she read a poem to him on his last day of work, he realized that moment was among his greatest accomplishments. For him, “teaching is an opportunity to shape the future.” He believes by teaching he is paying it forward, by seeing the potential in all his students and acting on that potential.
His experiences have taught him there are always multiple ways of viewing a topic or idea and the best way to approach a problem is to figure out where strengths and weaknesses occur. Among Professor Glover’s strengths is his ability to make tedious topics accessible and interesting as well as being personable. He admits a weakness for getting lost in the details and spreading himself thin.
Then there was the topic of success, something so many Carnegie Mellon students strive to accomplish. Most do. Professor Glover defined success in the classroom as the ability to achieve student comprehension. On a larger level, he believes his success is defined by completing a set of goals while maintaining his dignity and integrity.
That is something everyone can do, no matter their goals.