Professor Devoney Looser loves British literature, all things Jane Austen – and roller derby. When Looser’s not busy teaching at MU, she skates with the Derby Dames. Although Looser has been skating since her toddler years, she is relatively new to the roller derby scene in Columbia. After a few years of experience and a few minor injuries, Looser has come to appreciate her roller derby “sisters” and her role on the team.
Her Campus Mizzou: How did you initially become interested in roller derby?
Devoney Looser: A former MU English graduate student, Dorian Slay, and a former MU Special Collections librarian, Olive R. Twisted, were kind enough to include me when they went out to Columbia’s Empire Roller Rink. At Empire, we were recruited to Monday night beginner’s practices by one of the CoMo Derby Dames. It was challenging to try to learn how to do entirely new things on skates – learning how to fall safely, for instance. But four months later all three of us took and passed our skills tests on the same night, which allowed us to join the team for endurance practices and scrimmages. My love for skating in general is also what led me to roller derby, and that goes back to my childhood in Minnesota. My late grandfather was ice-skating well into his 70s and tried to teach me ice dancing. Most of the kids I knew grew up on ice skates. The boys played hockey, and the graceful girls took up figure skating. I wasn’t very graceful, so I got involved in speed skating. If there had been a girls’ ice hockey team then, I’m sure I would have tried that, but speed skating was a blast for the few childhood years I was involved.
HCM: Do you have a roller derby name? How did you come up with it?
DL: I skate with the CoMo Derby Dames as Stone Cold Jane Austen. It was my friend Olive R. Twisted who came up with the idea of the name, which I loved immediately and found hilarious. It just fit. I adore Jane Austen’s writings and especially her signature irony. My number is 316, after the wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin’s phrase Austin 3:16. There is actually an international roller derby name registry, and I learned after I requested to skate under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen that another skater in Liverpool, England, had asked to have it registered shortly before I had. At first I was denied use of the name, but fortunately I wrote to her, and she agreed to let me have permission to use the name, too. We didn’t think we’d ever meet in an international roller derby bout!
HCM: How long have you been skating?
DL: I’ve been ice-skating and roller-skating since I was four or five. I’m not even sure, but it’s been as long as I can remember. There were a lot of adult years, especially when I was pregnant with my two sons, when I got on ice skates at most once a year. It was after that period that I started beginner’s practices for roller derby under the tutelage of CoMo Derby Dames Maimy Fisher and Ninja Sqwidd in October 2009. I passed my skills tests and joined the CoMo Derby Dames in March 2010, and I’ve been skating with the team since then.
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HCM: Have you ever been injured?
DL: In June of 2010, I sprained my knee pretty badly. It was very disappointing, as I’d been in my first rookie bout just the month before and had been named Rookie Blocker MVP! I’d never been MVP of anything in my life. So it was a complete bummer when I got injured so shortly after that. I had been knocked down several times in a row in a jam at scrimmage and hadn’t noticed that my kneepad was off kilter. I took a good fall with my kneepad in the wrong position and knew right away I’d gotten hurt. After that, I stopped skating, of course, and I walked with a limp for quite a few weeks. It was probably eight weeks before my leg felt back to normal. Sports injuries can take a lot longer to heal in middle age. I always said I’d quit roller derby after my first injury, but that was hard to do. I really loved it too much to walk away.
HCM: What is your relationship with your team like?
DL: I have the most amazing teammates. In roller derby culture, we often refer to ourselves as “sisters,” and most of us also have “derby wives,” teammates who are our best friends and go-to people in derby and in life. My teammates have not only incredible physical and mental strength on the track and many talents off the track but are an incredibly funny, interesting bunch of people. I never leave our practices without having done both a lot of sweating and a lot of laughing. These are just great women, and a few great men, too, as coaches and referees.
HCM: Do any of your students know that you are in the roller derby?
DL: Well one of my former graduate students, Dorian Slay, was my teammate! She finished her Ph.D. and is now an Assistant Professor at West Liberty University in West Liberty, W. Va. She is now skating with the Ohio Valley Roller Girls. She and I might have been the only dissertation adviser-Ph.D. student duo playing competitive roller derby in the country. Yes, my students know about my involvement in roller derby. Partly it’s because there was a short bit about it in Mizzou magazine, but partly it’s because I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about it. I try not to bore the students too much with these personal details!
HCM: What is your favorite part of participating in the roller derby?
DL: It is difficult to come up with just one favorite part. I think, though, at the end of the day it’s the only exercise I’ve ever done that is just plain fun. That is certainly the result of incredible teammates, a love of skating, enjoyment that comes from having an alter ego, and the sport itself. Having my son say that he wants to grow up to have biceps like his mother’s is also pretty cool!
To find out more about Columbia’s Roller Derby and see pictures check out http://www.comoderbydames.org