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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Christine Doran
Dr. Christine Doran is a professor in the English and Communication Department here on campus, while also serving as director of the Women’s and Gender Studies department as well. She teaches an extremely diverse catalogue of classes including but not limited to Intro to Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, 20thCentury British Literature, and Graphic Novels/Manga. Off the bat, Dr. Doran emphasizes her flexibility in terms of courses, which speaks to her willingness to educate students on a large number of topics. Dr. Doran has done more for her students and this campus than teach multiple different courses though.
Dr. Doran’s work with students includes more than just teaching them: she is also engaged in helping them prepare for and present at conferences. In Spring 2018, she and a student attended the Southwest Popular Culture Association conference—the student’s travel was funded by money from the Center for Applied Learning’s $5.25 million gift from the incredible donation of Don and Kathy Lougheed. The Center for Applied Learning also funded the conference registrations for eight students to attend the 4th Annual Gender, Sex, and Sexuality (GSS) Conference, #Persistence, held this year at St. Lawrence University. Three SUNY Potsdam students presented at the GSS Conference in Spring 2018. Women’s and Gender Studies is a program with 25 years of history at SUNY Potsdam and Dr. Doran is thrilled to see this work continue with connections to the other three colleges in the area through events like the GSS Conference.
Dr. Doran speaks in length about her affinity and love for literature, something I related to instantly. She talks about how there is so much literature that the breadth of works enables everyone to find something that they’d like. Literature is something that all people can find connections with and can be a powerful thing. The fact there are seemingly infinite amounts of literature out there ready to be read, it would almost be impossible for someone to not find something they could relate to or connect with. Reading also betters everyone’s abilities to critically think and make connections; a skill that is too often neglected. All of these reasons are why Dr. Doran loves and teaches Literature.
As an undergrad, Dr. Doran was in a position that may be familiar to many students now: she had no idea what she wanted to do. What she did know though is that she loved talking about books. She had a definite passion for literature, and she loved the “intellectual work” and thought involved with literature as well. Dr. Doran grew up in Potsdam, and when she moved back home after graduate school, she was in the right place at the right time to fill in for a professor who had left. After filling in for that professor, she ended up becoming a permanent member of the staff here and even grew into her role as Director of Women’s and Gender Studies. Because of her passion for literature and her Potsdam heritage, she ended up finding out what she wanted to do!
When asked to give some advice to all students her on campus, Dr. Doran came up with two main pieces of advice. The first piece is to find something that brings you joy and to do it every day. You should smile very day. This is admirable as everyone seems to have so much stress on them that they forget to smile! The second piece of advice is that everyone should be able to say no if they can’t do something. Since there are always things you can be doing for yourself and there are countless responsibilities people have, it’s important that you can say no and avoid overworking yourself. So in summary, Dr. Doran says smile and don’t overwork yourself!