Every once in a while, a professor comes along who changes the way students are accustomed to learning. Elizabeth Chang is one of those professors. As her students will tell you, Prof. Chang challenges her students to think outside the box when it comes to their classroom discussions of Victorian literature. This year she was one of five MU educators awarded with the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.
Her Campus Mizzou: Tell us a little about your background.
Elizabeth Chang: I grew up in a very small town in western Massachusetts. I spent a lot of time reading books there because there wasn’t very much else to do.
My father was born and grew up in China, and my mother is from Los
Angeles, so my background was a little different from my friends’ growing up.
HCM: Did you always want to be an English professor?
EC: No. I originally wanted to work for a museum when I graduated from
college. But my father is an academic, so I already knew that it was
something I was interested in.
HCM: What is your approach to teaching Victorian literature?
EC: I like to find connections between the nineteenth century and today.
Many things about our contemporary politics and culture derive from the
Victorian era, and students are often surprised by the similarities
between the present and the past—even when the similarities are not
necessarily good ones.
HCM: You’re best known for the thought-provoking questions you ask of your students. Could you tell me more about that?
EC: Teaching for me is always about a conversation. I like that conversation
to be fairly unpredictable, not only to keep everyone interested, but
also to find out new ways of thinking. I want students to try to challenge
themselves to find new ways to approach reading literature.
HCM: What is the most gratifying part of your job?
EC: There are many gratifying parts of my job. Working with students who
think they won’t like reading or writing about Victorian literature and
helping them see that it can be interesting is one thing I like. Getting
to work with my colleagues in the English department is pretty great, too.
HCM: What did receiving the Kemper Fellowship mean to you?
EC: It’s an unbelievable honor. I’m thrilled but also very humbled to be in
the company of the amazing teachers that have won this award in past
years.