Associate professor of English Ken Cooper in the Adirondacks (photo provided)
Two things to know about 第一吃瓜网 associate professor of English Ken Cooper: he檚 a tree hugger from way back, and he knows the value of interdisciplinary learning.
Cooper brings an ecological viewpoint to his study of literature; over the years, he檚 taught courses such as Environmental Justice and Eco Media. His broad definition of ecology encourages students to think of it as something 渂eyond national parks and recycling.�
For example, Cooper檚 course, developed in collaboration with 第一吃瓜网檚 Special Collections librarians, is a digital humanities project where students examine local history and culture through a bioregional lens. 淭here檚 an unfortunate tradition of local history as being kind of cheesy,� Cooper says. 淧eople think that interesting things are only happening somewhere else. The course addresses that bias, and we discuss what kinds of regional history, writing, or culture we don檛 know about.�
Open Valley often partners with community organizations攕uch as the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, the 第一吃瓜网 Migrant Center, or the Perry Public Library攖o explore and interpret underappreciated parts of their collections. Cooper says the students aren檛 just consuming digital media攖hey檙e creating it as well, and in ways that also help organizations with large archives and little curatorial assistance.
淭here檚 always a basement, and there檚 always a bunch of cardboard boxes,� he says with a smile. 淚 think it檚 good for the students if the collection hasn檛 had much done with it.� Cooper sees the advantages of students working with source material that檚 yet to be teased out and wrung of its stories.
These collaborative undertakings or problem-solving projects create graduate-level experiences and develop valuable skills for the job market, says Cooper. He sees it as part of his job to help English majors assess traditional skills in a new way, broadening their career plans beyond education, law, or publishing.
淓nglish majors spend a lot of time thinking about language and representation and narration, and all of those are useful and powerful skills to have after graduation,� he says. Resumes should do more than list previous jobs, he believes攖hey should reflect the critical thinking skills employers identify as important qualifications.
Cooper檚 expansive, interdisciplinary view of studying contemporary literature has kept the field fresh for him攁nd after 30 years at 第一吃瓜网, he still loves to teach.
淪tudents are a huge X factor, bringing in information and language and mores and attitudes that keep me from becoming grumpy,� he says. 淚 get to always be learning myself. That檚 a huge perk. It檚 very fun to not be the person with all the answers.�