We celebrate retiring Professors Margaret Ferguson, W. Jack Hicks, Richard A. Levin, and Evan Watkins with a series of interviews about their time at UC Davis.
Professor Margaret Ferguson
-What brought you to the field of English literature?
Seven English Department faculty tell us about what it was like to be first-generation college students.
“The defining feature of my educational experience as a first-generation student was doubt,” says Professor Matthew Vernon, who studies both African-American and medieval British literature. “Was I good enough to attend the schools that I did?... Could I make the most of the opportunity?” Years later, Vernon’s own first-generation students know the answers: Yes and emphatically yes.
We report from a recent Scholars Symposium panel with Becky Kling, Michael Martel, Meg Sparling, and Melissa Wills on the dramatic transformations that can happen through the dissertation process.
