Welcome to COIL WMS 330,
I am Dr. Barb LeSavoy, Chair and Associate Professor in Women and Gender Studies at The College at Brockport and faculty for this COIL course, where we are partnering The College at Brockport WMS 330 Honors students with students studying English and gender at Novgorod State University in Russia. We started this teaching/learning partnership in fall 2012. This 2018 class is our fourth project together.
I live a very busy life balancing work demands with raising two daughters, Maeve, age 17, and Savoy, age 20. Savoy is a senior college student at SUNY Binghamton and she studies Medieval History and Gender. Maeve is a senior in high school and is just now thinking about and applying to college for next year. Both my daughters are kind and caring and I love them so much. I live in a three bedroom house in Brockport NY, which is a rural village that sits on the Erie canal. My home is about one block from our campus. It is filled with lots of funky furniture and art. I am drawn to the uneven and this shows in ways I that I decorate my home and life.
I love to read, rummage, and write. What scares me most is war and conservative patriarchies. I also don't like to fly although I travel a lot. I was in Russia un summer 2016 where I taught a three week Women and Gender Studies Seminar at the St. Petersburg Institute of Linguistics, Cognition, and Culture at St. Petersburg University in Russia. That was my third summer teaching at the institute. While in Russia, I lived in a flat in St. Petersburg and loved my time there. I have traveled to Novgorod many times and always have a lovely visit with Elena Lukovitskaya, our Novgorod faculty for this course. I also get to visit Olesya Schendrigina, who was a Russian high school exchange student here in Brockport during the 2013-14 school year, and who resided with me and my family for a year while she studied in America.
I have taken both of my daughters with me to Russia during my summer teaching, Savoy in 2015, and Maeve in 2016. They both loved their time there. I also had the privilege to lead 8 brilliant Brockport students on a study abroad to Russia in summer 2016. This was an extraordinary experience for me and my students. In summer 2015, one Brockport student participated in the Russia Program, and she also was part of our COIL course in fall 2014.
My favorite foods are bread, cheese, and good wine. Also, I am a coffee junkie. Every morning, on my way to work, I stop at Java Junction, a local coffee roaster in Brockport, and I get a large black coffee to go. This is part addiction and part ritual. It is hard for me not to do this. My favorite candy is salted caramels. I also love the Russian sugar candy with a cow on the wrapper -- not sure what the name of this is.
I do not watch a lot of TV, but did, for the third summer, junk out on Netflix's "Orange is the New Black." And also I watched the second season of "The Handmaid's Tale." I love film. My favorite film that I watched this year was: "Lady Bird." I also loved the 2016 Serbian Film: "A Good Wife." I would love to see the 2017 Russian film "Loveless," but it has not come to the US yet. Other films that stick out to me of late are “The Room,” and “The Danish Girl.” "Lilya 4-Ever" which I have screened in instruction, will always stay with me.
I am happy and active but intense in living my life with purpose and passion. Some day, I hope to visit Minsk in Belarus, which is where my grandparents on both my mother and father's side are from. When my grandparents emigrated to the US, Minsk was still part of Russia, and so when I visit Russia, I am close to my family origins, and this is always very meaningful to me. In my travels to Russia, I often feel a sense of coming home.
My wish is for world peace and health and equality for all people.
I am in love with teaching and working in women and gender studies and especially love interacting with and learning from my students and colleagues. I am excited to meet everyone in our course and look forward to working collaboratively across time and place.
Until the next time.
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