Hi everyone! My name is Dawn Marlan, and I’ll be the instructor of record for our FIG, In Search of Belonging. I’m really excited to be teaching the FIG in person this year and having outings in the Cultural Connections course. The FIG will be personal and project-oriented while introducing you to a couple of different academic disciplines (literary and cultural studies in my class & journalism in the other).

I’m from the East Coast (Pennsylvania), but I went to graduate school in Chicago, and I’ve been teaching at the UO for about 15 years, so I feel equally at home on all three “coasts.” I write essays, literary nonfiction, and reviews on literature, art, film and politics. I publish in lots of different kinds of venues, from scholarly journals to literary magazines, anthologies, newspapers, and art exhibition catalogues.

These days, I spend most of my writing time on fiction projects and writing personal essays. I am currently finishing a novel manuscript inspired by The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, and will soon be turning to a novel project on a Victorian-era scandal in medical history. Other interests include cooking, hiking, running, and tending to my first garden. I’m an avid spectator of modern dance and all sorts of performing arts and I have two adult children (ages 21 and 24), who are both in California.

Also, know that I will welcome hearing from all of you, even if you don’t have specific questions. Please feel free to reach out either by email or in my Zoom office hours just to introduce yourselves and begin to get acquainted.

Email: damarlan@uoregon.edu

Hi everyone! My name is Maddy, and I will be your FIG assistant this fall for “In Search of Belonging: Literature and Belonging.” While this is my first year being an FA, I took COLT 231 with Professor Marlan my sophomore year, and it helped me find the Comparative Literature minor, so I’m very excited to help you all figure out what path is right for you and get to know you all!

Just a little about me, I will be a Junior this fall, majoring in General Social Science (GSS) with a minor in Comparative Literature. I’m originally from Maine and grew up in Acadia National Park, but I moved out to Oregon in 2019 to go to the UO, and ended up taking a year off between my first and second years to get residency. I love to read, go hiking, take long walks by the river, collage, play basketball and hang out with my friends at our favorite coffee place near campus in my free time. One of my favorite things to do in Eugene is to go downtown to the Saturday market and buy fresh bread and produce. I love trying new hobbies so if anyone has something that they’ve been wanting to try let me know and we can try it together!

If you have any questions about what to expect from the FIG, about the UO in general, or you want to introduce yourself before the fall just shoot me an email and I’ll get in touch with in a day or two! I can’t wait to meet all of you!

Email: mgood4@uoregon.edu