Misty Krueger

How has the pandemic changed your research agenda or writing process, if at all?
Because of the pandemic I have been sheltering in place since March 2020, and I have spent a lot of that time shifting my teaching online and honing my Zoom pedagogy. This shift inspired me to give a talk at the Southeastern American Eighteenth-Century Society conference (also on Zoom) about what I’m calling “Zooming with Jane Austen.” The talk discusses the way I used Zoom to teach an Austen course and help foster online sociability. That course also inspired me to revise an essay I had written on digital pedagogy for a collection on reading Austen after the bicentenary of her death—in particular I added a section on Zoom pedagogy. The pandemic also inspired me to answer a call for papers from the Jane Austen Society of North America’s online journal, Persuasions On-Line, about Austen and the pandemic. I published an essay titled “The Austen Treatment: Turning to Austen in Times of Isolation,” and in the essay I examine some of the many internet articles that appeared during the pandemic that connected Austen to biblio- and cinematherapy. The pandemic clearly altered my research agenda, as it inspired me to tie my love of Austen to timely experiences and pedagogies spawned by social distancing and quarantining.

Any recent developments/publications/interests/pets you would like us to publicize?
I am excited to share that a collection of essays I edited is coming out this March. Transatlantic Women Travelers, 1688-1843, published by Bucknell University Press, features ten fantastic essays by women scholars from the U.S., Canada, and England, as well as an afterword by Eve Tavor Bannet and my introduction to the volume. The collection explores representations of late seventeenth- through mid-nineteenth-century transatlantic women travelers across a range of historical and literary works. Essays in the first part of the book cover figures such as Maria Sibylla Merian (Diana Epelbaum), Anna Maria Falconbridge (Shelby Johnson), Flora Tristan and Fanny Calderón de la Barca (Grace A. Gomashie), Newfoundland women (Pam Perkins), and Anne Bonny and Mary Read (Ula Lukszo Klein). In the latter half, essays focus on fictional women including characters in Emma Corbett (Jennifer Golightly), The Female American (Alexis McQuigge), Woman of Colour (Octavia Cox), Zelica the Creole (Victoria Barnett-Woods), and Oroonoko and Hartly House (Kathleen Morrissey). While at one time transatlantic studies concentrated predominantly on men’s travels, this volume highlights the resilience of women who ventured voluntarily and by force across the Atlantic—some seeking mobility, adventure, knowledge, wealth, and freedom, and others surviving subjugation, capture, and enslavement. The essays address the fictional and the historical, national and geographic location, racial and ethnic identities, and the configuration of the transatlantic world as a space for women. This book was inspired by a class I designed six years ago and teach regularly, as well as an ASECS panel on transatlantic eighteenth-century women that I organized years ago on behalf of the Aphra Behn Society. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with these amazing scholars, and I am excited about sharing these essays with both our scholarly community and students.

How can institutions change orientation sessions in 2021 to help new students and faculty acclimate to their new school, college, or university from afar/remotely?
Thanks to the pandemic, many of us have moved our entire lives online, so it should not come as a surprise that we will continue to inhabit this space in the year to come. As institutions think about ways to make new students and faculty feel welcome and eventually “at home,” they will need to draw on the technology that supports sociability, and they will need to keep in mind how video calls, for example, can be used effectively to encourage social interactions, but should not be overused. As long as people engage in video calls in creative ways (such as small group hangouts and happy hours, watch parties, and online games) and do not feel overwhelmed with Zoom call after Zoom call, this technology can go a long way in helping people feel connected. There are ways to get to know people, places, and institutions online other than a video call, though. Pre-recorded videos, text chat, engaging websites, and social media are instrumental in helping people feel connected at this time. Once students and faculty “arrive” at their new school, it is likely that they will feel more disconnected than in days—a feeling of personal contact has been dependent on face-to-face, in-person interactions. It is now more important than ever for people to actively commit to communicating with each other in small groups and to building a virtual community that is as welcoming as one you would find in person.
What have you seen as effective in terms of how scholars use social media? In terms of how scholars remain productive in challenging times?
In challenging times like these, scholars are using social media as sites of testimony and places of affirmation. Twitter and Facebook have been useful for providing scholars a space to be honest with each other about how difficult it has been in the pandemic to juggle “all the things!” New teaching modalities, new courses, children at home, spouse at home, lack of resources, works-in-progress, works to begin, works stalled…the list goes on. Social media has provided an outlet for people to share their experiences and
to support one another—whether they have known each other for years or just started following each other last week. This is affirmation. People are committed to being there for each other, and they find all kinds of ways to do this. For example, I am the admin for a Facebook teaching group and co-admin for a writing group. This is just one way I try to help people come together and find the support they need to make it through the day. I think it’s perfectly fine to redefine our productivity goals right now and not to compare ourselves in 2021 to who we were and what we were capable of doing at any other time in our lives. This acceptance of “being enough” has actually helped my productivity. I get done what I get done, and that’s enough. I encourage others to think about that, too. You are enough.

Any advice on prioritizing work objectives, or declining professional requests/ "saying no”?
Saying no has been one of the hardest things for me to do. I have been a hardcore yes person for over ten years—if someone asked me to join a committe, I would say yes. Fill in for someone on sabbatical? Yes. Give a talk? Yes. Write a chapter for someone’s collection? Yes. In 2018 when I was diagnosed with cancer and went through a grueling year of treatment, I had to learn how to say no, not because I wanted to, but because my body told me I had to. In my recovery, I have embraced the power of “no.” I now prioritize the things I want to do. To paraphrase Yoda, there is no I “have” or “need” to do, only want to do. I ask myself, is this right for me? Will accepting that request help me achieve my goals in a way that feels healthy right now? Will giving my time to something (say, at work) be good for me now—not just in the long run. The long run for far too long has been the reason I could never say no. Now I feel that I’m finally in a position to say no and to value the present as much as the future. That is my wish for all of us.

Any suggestions for what the Women’s Caucus and its members can do to support adjuncts/instructors/junior faculty/independent scholars/K-12 teachers (take your pick)--both as an organization and as individuals?
In the past twenty years I have been a graduate student (twice), an adjunct, a non-tenure-track lecturer, a visiting assistant professor, a non-tenure track assistant professor, a tenure-track assistant professor, and now finally a faculty member in the last stage of my tenure application process. I know how hard it is to feel like everything you have hoped for and worked so hard for may not be realized as you imagined. It was difficult to face my colleagues at conferences for many years because I dreaded that feeling of people asking me “what’s next?” and knowing that I could only say, “I don’t
know, but I hope that….” The Women’s Caucus and its members can support contingent faculty, scholars, and teachers by recognizing that this space is full of people who don’t know what’s next, who have hope but also fear, and who are OK with not being on the tenure track or in a tenured position. The Caucus can normalize the many avenues that we tread and help the non-tenure track and untenured feel that this is an egalitarian space full of support. I know that members of the Caucus do that already, which is great, but as more graduate students, adjuncts, instructors, and junior faculty face the reality that the jobs won’t be there to begin with or are taken away, they will need to find a way to cope with the fallout. I think it would be great to have a group (without tenure track and tenured faculty present) in the Caucus that addresses the experiences of this population.

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