Camille Norton
PhD, Harvard University, 1992
MA, Harvard University, 1987
BA, University of Massachusetts, 1983
When I was an undergraduate, the study of literature was the gateway through which I discovered world history and the cultures that shape the way writers think imaginatively about characters and the stories of their lives. I try to bring the sense of a creative intersection between the arts and the world into all of my courses. It is my intention to think with my students and to create learning communities that create a model for how students can become intellectuals and writers.
Teaching at Pacific has allowed me to design courses that connect directly to my work as a poet.
The poetry workshop I teach every spring brings me into contact with creative students from all disciplines: young visual artists, students headed to law and medical schools, and of course the students who are honing their writing talents in English courses. The workshop runs concurrently with the Pacific Poetry Series, which brings important published poets, such as Marilyn Chin and David Mura, into the classroom with our student writers. Our student-run Humanities journal, Calliope, has been a terrific forum not only for student writers but for student editors.
My others specialties include critical theory classes such as "Reading the Body: Gender and Literature," and special topic courses such as "Virginia Woolf." I also enjoy teaching introductory courses in global literature. Two of my favorites ,"Between Two Worlds" and "Sex, Story, and Cinema," bring us into contact with exciting literature and film from the Pacific Rim, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and India.
