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Meet Dr. B. Ayne Cantrell "College ought to teach you how to live as well as how to make a living." I try to keep these words of one of my favorite professors in mind when I design and teach my courses. Yes, college graduates should have skills that enable them to land jobs that will pay them good wages, and my courses teach critical thinking and communication skills essential for success in all types of work. But a university degree should mean much more. When I think back over my undergraduate years, I now realize how much I developed intellectually and morally in just four short years and have come to truly appreciate the advantages of a liberal arts education. I know that I am a better person--a more informed citizen, sympathetic teacher, responsible and loving parent, and happy individual--because of my university studies. The courses I teach encourage self-discovery through writing and reading as well as learning about others and the world-at-large. I always invite students to explore how the subjects I teach will bring new meaning to their lives. As a writing teacher, I value writing as a means of discovery and of moving an audience, and I believe that students learn to be effective writers by becoming conscious of the composing process and by writing and rewriting under the guidance and support of critical readers, a writing community composed of classmates and the instructor. In my first-year writing courses, the subject matter is the writing process, and students constantly engage in the practice of prewriting, writing, and rewriting. In that I ask my students to take responsibility for their learning in a cooperative, collaborative setting with their peers, my instruction is student-centered. Also because I view successful writing as an acquired skill gained over weeks of instruction, I delay the grading of writing until the end of the course when students submit their portfolios of self-selected, revised writing. Up until when I am obligated to assess the students' portfolio as a final product exhibiting what they have learned in the course, I play the role of a writing coach who gives students constructive feedback to improve their works in progress. Our ability to write well empowers us, and I want to help students achieve that goal. As a teacher of literature, I value the joy and meaning that literature brings to our lives. I am sadden to think that my generation may be the last "well read" generation, so one of my objectives in teaching literature, especially at the sophomore level, is to "turn on" students to reading by teaching them to be active readers. When we engage actively with a piece of imaginative literature, we gain pleasure from experiencing the writer's unique perspective; we live vicariously in the characters; we find nourishment for our emotional lives; we cross boundaries of gender, class, race, culture; and we understand ourselves and our world better than if we had never read at all. I don't think there is just one way to read literature, however. Because students often teach me new interpretations, I encourage class discussion and often ask students to work in small groups where they can learn from each other. A perspective that I always bring to the study of literature is feminist. How does gender shape the author's reception and concerns? Answering such a question often produces a lively debate in my classes. Teaching--I have been teaching at the university-level since 1966, first speech and theatre courses at Columbia College (Columbia, South Carolina) and then English and women's studies courses at Middle Tennessee State University. Presently, I teach general studies courses in composition and literature and upper-division and graduate courses in Shakespeare's tragedies, Renaissance drama, and women in literature. I continue to teach composition using portfolio assessment, but in Fall 2002 I will also try my hand at computer-assisted writing instruction. In the near future, I will develop English 2030 (Experience of Literature), English 2330 (Women in Literature), and English 4340 (Tragedies of Shakespeare) as online courses. Research--I have published articles in composition studies and on dramatists James Shirley, Aphra Behn, Shakespeare, and Beth Henley, and I have presented papers on a variety of literary, women's studies, and composition topics at conferences throughout the United States, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication, National Council Teachers of English Conference, Valdosta State University Women's Studies Conference, South Central Women's Studies Association Conference, Tennessee Council Teachers of English Conference, Tennessee College English Association, Tennessee Philological Association, Southeastern Women's Studies Association, Tennessee Creative Drama Association, West Virginia Shakespeare and Renaissance Association Conference, Themes in Drama Conference, Writing Program Administrators' Conference, Southern Humanities Conference, and the National Women's Studies Association Annual Conference. My current research interests include Elizabeth Cary Falkland (1585-1639), the first English woman to have a biography written about her, the only English woman known to have written a tragedy in the Renaissance, and the first English woman to have a play published.. I also am completing an annotated bibliography for Greenwood Press entitled Gender Studies of English Renaissance Drama, Including Shakespeare. I have directed theses and dissertations in composition studies and on dramatists John Webster, Aphra Behn, and Shakespeare. University Service--In the English Department, I have served as supervisor of graduate teaching assistants (1993-2002), Director of Lower Division English (1993-97), coordinator of the Portfolio Composition Program (1997-2002), chair of the Advisory Committee (1999-2000), and chair of the Upper Division English Committee (1983-88). At the university-level, I am a member of the Women's Studies Council and have served as chair of the Search Committee for the Vice President for Development and University Relations (1994-95), coordinator of the first Women's Studies Women and Power Conference (1995), chair of the President's Steering Committee on Women's Issues (1992-93), chair of the Faculty Research Committee (1987-88), and coordinator of the Women's Studies Program (1983-85). In 1983 I founded MTSU's celebration of National Women's History Month, and since 1990 I have served as president of the June S. Anderson Foundation, which awards scholarships to MTSU female students majoring in nontraditional fields for women.. Honors and Recognitions--Nominee for MTSU Lifetime Achievement Award (2001); First recipient of the Ayne Cantrell Award for Outstanding Contribution to the MTSU Women's Studies Program (1992); The King/Hampton Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of Women at MTSU (1992); Nominee for Outstanding Teacher (1991); The Richard Lawlor Award for Outstanding Service to Community Theatre, Lebanon, Tennessee (1978)
Favorite color: purple I was born in Lebanon, Tennessee, just thirty miles from Murfreesboro, and since I have two degrees from MTSU (B.S. in English 1994 and D.A. in English 1976), I guess that makes me "home grown." I did venture out of the state for seven years (two spent at Penn State University earning my M.A. in Public Address and five in Columbia, South Carolina, teaching). During that time my daughter Stacee was born. I was happy to return to Tennessee when she was a baby and for the opportunity to teach at MTSU, where Stacee also earned a degree in 1999. Since the 1960's when I was an undergraduate at MTSC (yes, we were a college in those days), I have had a love of the theatre. I had a wonderful drama coach (Dot Tucker--the "Tucker" of Tucker Theatre) who made sure that I experienced all the essentials of playmaking--from sweeping floors to acting major parts. I still participate in community theatre by serving on the board of directors for the Murfreesboro Ensemble Theatre. Of course, I like to read and look forward to my retirement when I won't have to read with a red pen in hand in anticipation of lecturing to my students. Also when I retire I will have time to play with my dog, a Cairn terrier named Shakespeare (he's very literary).
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