I took Prof. Lyerly’s class on “Societal Problems on the Silver Screen” my Freshman year. In fact, I remember one of the first conversations I had with her, where I asked if she would be able to ask some random philosophy question I had, to which she responded “I can try, come to my office hours.” I did, and pretty soon I was going roughly once a week to meet with her.

Prof. Lyerly was the first professor who really challenged me to change the way that I thought when I was on campus. She’s a southern military veteran feminist who was the perfect person to help push the way I thought about both traditional narratives on race and gender. She is ever opinionated, but was always down to have a conversation with her students in her office in Stokes Hall.

I later ended up taking her class on Feminism the next year, where we read literature that would make me question many of the brands that I used to support when I was younger. The problems with people like President Teddy Roosevelt, whose Sagamore Hill home is on Long Island near where I live, or novels like Tarzan a show I loved when I was a kid were shown to me. Learning about the mistakes that come along with human history helps us develop greater appreciation for it.

More than anything, I credit Prof. Lyerly with helping me realize a lot about the world of politics that was really going on in America, and the historical roots behind certain ideas. Suffice to say, we are grossly under educated when it comes understanding the history of oppression in America, and how that history creates present and future problems. I think that my conversations with Prof. Lyerly in Freshman and Sophomore year really helped me start to come to begin the journey towards understanding my role in this system!

Key Quotes:

“Always pay attention to the people who are part of the groups you join, make sure their values reflect your own.”