Joan Peters' classroom is a place of intersecting ideas, images, and perspectives. In her literature courses, she invites students to connect and contrast characters, history, and cultures. She guides them on a trail from one thought to another, until comparisons bring context, meaning, and understanding--often to the students' own lives and times.
“I ask students to understand that everything they read is imbedded in a cultural value system,” says Peters, CSUCI assistant professor of English. “I always like to teach literature from two different cultures, which enriches students' learning experience. I want them to think about their own culture and how individuals interact and are affected by culture.”
What emerges is an open field of discussion, a fertile plain where students dive in and dissect scenes, themes, and storylines. It is learning that is fresh, alive, and transcendent. In comparing and contrasting novels, Peters challenges students' assumptions and asks them to engage in deeper, more thought-provoking analyses.
“Joan's methods definitely encourage critical, analytic, and independent thought,” says Josh Seale, a senior majoring in English: Literature and Writing. “She can take a character, a setting, even a single object from a piece of writing, and help you draw context from it until it becomes its own story.”
Melinda Sapo, another senior English major, agrees. “Her way of teaching is energetic and inspiring. She made me want to do the best I possibly could and even more, to go beyond what I thought was my threshold of competence. She has brought out the best of my talents, changed my view of myself and my world around me.”
Such praise also comes from an appreciation of Peters' own creative background and experiences. She is the author of a novel, Manny and Rose, and two non-fiction works about women and working. Currently, she is working on a new book called BL(ENDING) GENDER, which addresses gender equality and discusses if and how it can be achieved.
For Peters, CSUCI is the perfect place to teach. She is particularly excited about the University's interdisciplinary approach. “Students and professors are all engaged in an exciting experiment,” she says. “We're explorers, looking at things in new ways, willing to change our views, and challenge our thinking.”
One of her major accomplishments has been the creation of a strong program of speakers, including such diverse writers as Nicaraguan poet and novelist Gioconda Belli and Anchee Min, who wrote about her experiences during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. “My creative writing students, listening to a real person with a story that matters, can identify with speakers and be inspired,” Peters says.
“They begin to believe that writing is not beyond their reach. I want students to do everything they can with their potential. I want them to write about what they believe in, to have passion for life and writing. I want them to be engaged in shaping their world. I want to help them find their own unique material, to teach them to help each other to do the same.
“It is a great moment, she says, when students find their authentic voice. “There is a feel to it; their words become resonant. It's a kind of electricity. I teach creative writing to see that.”