Courtney Baker, Associate Professor of English, is an instructor known for both her authoritative knowledge on race criticism and her ability to drop Pixies lyrics into a lecture without breaking stride in a discussion of Derrida. Quiet and dry, she’s an enigmatic presence in the department.
Part of the enigma is fueled by the actually mystical quality of her interests: her “Exquisite Corpses” course is an examination of death in literature and, by extension, in life. If you were to ask her what her subject is, she’d answer “dead bodies.”
Her interest in death grew out of her most recent critical project, a forthcoming work entitled Human Insight: Looking at Black Suffering and Death, which she began “in part as a way to reckon with the horrible images circulated after 9/11.” The work also makes prominent use of the photography of lynching.
Understandably, such heavy subject matter is bound to make a professor seem a daunting partner for your everyday conversation. To unravel the shroud of mystery which surrounds her personality, Professor Baker agreed to answer a few questions for the College Voice.
What’s the weirdest experience you’ve ever had in the subway?
Ha! I think the subway is itself a weird environment (totally artificial, totally modern) which makes a majority of one’s experiences there weird. I can think of a few, actually.
I was once standing on the platform and, when the doors opened, out walked a classmate from college who I had not seen since graduation. I also saw some guy lick the standing pole. And there was the lady who ate her cupcake after it had fallen, frosting side down, onto the subway floor.
Of all the literary criticism you’ve ever read, whose prose was most boring?
Boring is not the enemy; irrelevance and narrowness of topic are.
What’s the embarrassing thing you’ve ever done in front of a class?
Making sweat angels on the blackboard. At least, that’s my view. I don’t want to know if others have a candidate.
Tell the story of your life in twenty words.
I was born bourgeois and black in suburban New Jersey. Academia gives me ballast, but I’m nowhere near done cooking yet.
What’s your least favorite food and why?
Lima beans are gross. It’s the texture. And I do not understand what people see in water chestnuts (again, texture).
If you could spend five consecutive years in any one city a
t any time in history, where and when would you live?
Do I have to be me? Because being black and female has historically been a big liability in most parts of the world. In that case, I prefer to be here, right now. But I’ve lately become really fascinated with Britain during WWII. We young Americans have no idea what it was like to live under such a state of anxiety and rationing. Though I know such an experience was far from enjoyable, I am quite curious as to what that experience was really like.
What was your favorite album when you were 16?
Probably The Sugarcubes, Life’s Too Good or Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit. You have no idea what a sea change occurred when that album came out.
Which literary character do you think is most similar to yourself?
Probably Sara Andrews of W.E.B. Du Bois’s Dark Princess because I c
an be prissy and have an uptight streak. I suppose I’m a bit Hermione Granger-esque as well. But secretly I want to be Sarah Connor (of the Terminator series).
If you could only smell one smell for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Fresh air.
Photo from Web
