UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lisa Spaar, Professor of English & Creative Writing, and Director of the Creative Writing Program

“And when you teach literature, you’re teaching things that are always going to read as politically incorrect.

“Take something like Huck Finn, for example, or Hemingway, or even Emily Dickinson. Things that might read to a contemporary audience as a trigger of something racist, misogynistic, or insensitive to a particular ethnic group or whatever, religious way of looking at things.

“And I think that’s something that, again, I feel very fortunate to be in English, because it’s on the table from the get-go. I mean, to say, Here is somebody who is speaking to us from a different time and a different place. There will be things about this that offend us now. What can we learn from this text?”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lisa Spaar, Professor of English & Creative Writing, and Director of the Creative Writing Program

“And when you teach literature, you’re teaching things that are always going to read as politically incorrect.

“Take something like Huck Finn, for example, or Hemingway, or even Emily Dickinson. Things that might read to a contemporary audience as a trigger of something racist, misogynistic, or insensitive to a particular ethnic group or whatever, religious way of looking at things.

“And I think that’s something that, again, I feel very fortunate to be in English, because it’s on the table from the get-go. I mean, to say, Here is somebody who is speaking to us from a different time and a different place. There will be things about this that offend us now. What can we learn from this text?”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lisa Spaar, Professor of English & Creative Writing, and Director of the Creative Writing Program

“There’s always been writing at University of Virginia. Jefferson himself, of course, made the Rotunda, which was a library, the center of the university rather than a chapel.

“Throughout its long history, there has always been the study of literature and hand in hand with that the writing. Especially if we jump ahead to people like Faulkner, but even going back further to Poe.

“And then the program we are now ranked so highly for, our Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, was founded in the late ‘70s by Gregory Orr and John Casey, and the program graduated its first class in 1982. And I was a member of that class.

“The study of poetry and of fiction writing just prepares you to pay attention, to keep your mind open. You know, the humanities make human beings real to each other.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lisa Spaar, Professor of English & Creative Writing, and Director of the Creative Writing Program

“There’s always been writing at University of Virginia. Jefferson himself, of course, made the Rotunda, which was a library, the center of the university rather than a chapel.

“Throughout its long history, there has always been the study of literature and hand in hand with that the writing. Especially if we jump ahead to people like Faulkner, but even going back further to Poe.

“And then the program we are now ranked so highly for, our Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, was founded in the late ‘70s by Gregory Orr and John Casey, and the program graduated its first class in 1982. And I was a member of that class.

“The study of poetry and of fiction writing just prepares you to pay attention, to keep your mind open. You know, the humanities make human beings real to each other.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics

Interviewer: “So what can you tell me about the cheating scandal?”

Bloomfield: “Yeah, it started at the end of 2000.

“I had started accepting homework online in the late ‘90s, and at the time I had students write a term paper. So when a student came wandering into my class in December of 2000 to say that she knew of two students who had turn in papers that they hadn’t written, I wrote computer programs to go looking for duplication. I just thought this is going to be a one-off deal, it’s going to run once, and I’ll never have to worry about it again.

“I started it Friday afternoon, and by Sunday, our dining room table was covered with duplicate papers.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics

Interviewer: “So what can you tell me about the cheating scandal?”

Bloomfield: “Yeah, it started at the end of 2000.

“I had started accepting homework online in the late ‘90s, and at the time I had students write a term paper. So when a student came wandering into my class in December of 2000 to say that she knew of two students who had turn in papers that they hadn’t written, I wrote computer programs to go looking for duplication. I just thought this is going to be a one-off deal, it’s going to run once, and I’ll never have to worry about it again.

“I started it Friday afternoon, and by Sunday, our dining room table was covered with duplicate papers.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics

“Any institution of higher education, in fact, any organization, really. Anybody who looks at credentials and takes them at face-value is naive.

“I think we’re now in an era, it is this post-integrity, post-truth era, it’s buyer beware. I think once the game has been laid out, that you need to have these great credentials, it’s all gameable.

“So if you look at a degree and you say, Wow, they graduated from so-and-so place; you’re naive. You have to look between their ears, what’s there? Look at their character, look at their understanding of things, their ability to think, all that.

“Dismiss their credentials, they’re all--they’re just a collection of stuff on paper.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics

“Any institution of higher education, in fact, any organization, really. Anybody who looks at credentials and takes them at face-value is naive.

“I think we’re now in an era, it is this post-integrity, post-truth era, it’s buyer beware. I think once the game has been laid out, that you need to have these great credentials, it’s all gameable.

“So if you look at a degree and you say, Wow, they graduated from so-and-so place; you’re naive. You have to look between their ears, what’s there? Look at their character, look at their understanding of things, their ability to think, all that.

“Dismiss their credentials, they’re all--they’re just a collection of stuff on paper.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics

“And this is one of the things that I’m missing as the years go by. The students really are less interactive than they used to be, they are really sucked into their gadgets these days.

“It reminds me, in the early days of cell phones, when a cell phone would ring I would have the student stand up and sing a song of my choosing. So it would be like, “I’m a Little Teapot” or “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” with hand gestures, actually. And this would discourage people from leaving their cell phones active.

“And then, everybody had cell phones. And they were going off all the time. And now they are eager to get out the door and get back to their gadgets. It’s disheartening, but it’s modern life.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics

“And this is one of the things that I’m missing as the years go by. The students really are less interactive than they used to be, they are really sucked into their gadgets these days.

“It reminds me, in the early days of cell phones, when a cell phone would ring I would have the student stand up and sing a song of my choosing. So it would be like, “I’m a Little Teapot” or “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” with hand gestures, actually. And this would discourage people from leaving their cell phones active.

“And then, everybody had cell phones. And they were going off all the time. And now they are eager to get out the door and get back to their gadgets. It’s disheartening, but it’s modern life.”

For more: www.uvastories.org