Dr. Tyler Fisher (B.A. English Literature, 2002; B.A. Spanish, 2003) became Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s first Rhodes Scholar in December 2002. The scholarship enabled him to undertake a Master\u2019s in European Literature at the University of Oxford. Originally from Fort Myers, Fisher also is an author, poet and musician. He will visit the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ campus the first week of April to participate in some of the university\u2019s 50th anniversary activities. To find out why he once carried a tribal bow and arrows across the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ campus, or what he now is looking forward to, keep reading this Q&A:<\/p>\n
Please bring us up to date on your career.<\/strong><\/p>\n After continuing at Oxford for my doctorate in Medieval and Modern Languages and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Spanish literature, I currently teach Spanish language, literature, and history at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.<\/p>\n Who inspired your achievements at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½?<\/strong><\/p>\n My Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ professors, without a doubt, were the inspiration and catalyst for what I achieved at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ and beyond. I am especially grateful to my mentors, Dr. Barry Mauer, Dr. Jayashree Shivamoggi, Dr. Alberto Villanueva, Dr. Kevin Meehan, and Dr. Richard Tucker.<\/p>\n Where have your educational travels taken you?<\/strong><\/p>\n My educational travels began at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½, where generous scholarships from The Burnett Honors College enabled me to pursue my language studies in Spain twice and chamber music studies in Normandy. In more recent years, I have had the opportunity regularly to conduct research in British and Spanish archives and to give academic talks at universities as far afield as Portugal, Ireland and Kuwait.<\/p>\n What other activities were you involved in at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was most involved as a resident assistant in Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s Libra Community. Resident assistants don\u2019t simply oversee security and discipline in their buildings; they also cultivate an on-campus educational community beyond the university classrooms. My residents and I built wooden rafts on Lake Claire, launched a recycling program and held philosophical discussion groups.<\/p>\n I also value the experience I gained from teaching after-school classes through the Honors Elementary Reach Out program.<\/p>\n What are your fond memories of Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½?<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps the experience that stands out most fondly and vividly in my memory is that of carrying an enormous bow and arrows across campus for one of Dr. Allyn Stearman\u2019s presentations. Dr. Stearman, then dean of the Honors College, conducted anthropological field research among the Yuqui people, an indigenous tribe unknown to the wider world until they were contacted in the Bolivian lowlands in the 1960s. It was my task to transport the samples of Yuqui hunting equipment (arrows the size of javelins!) from Dr. Stearman\u2019s office to the auditorium.<\/p>\n I was only a freshman, in my first semester at the time, and weapons from the Amazon seemed to have nothing to do with my major. But as I paraded across campus with these artifacts \u2014 naturally attracting many curious stares \u2014 suddenly the world seemed much more open, a distant tribe much more tangible, a topic of research from another discipline much more within my reach. The experience impressed the idea upon me: I can access the world here at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½!<\/p>\n What do you like to do for relaxation on your own time?<\/strong><\/p>\n England has a wealth of ancient, well-preserved footpaths, and one can simply follow them from town to town, village to village, stopping at quirky old pubs along the way. I love going on long walks with friends. In fact, I can proudly claim to have walked the entire length of the River Thames, from its source in the Gloucestershire hills to the Tower of London. I also continue to write poetry and folk songs. Doing so provides me a refreshing perspective on creative texts. After long stretches of analyzing poetry in my teaching and research, it is invigorating to see it from another angle as a practitioner.<\/p>\n What are you looking forward to in the years to come?<\/strong><\/p>\n I am looking forward to completing some major book projects in the next couple years. Specifically, I am working on a book about early modern devotional customs in Spain and their relationship to the literature of the period, and another on the question of why giants loom so large in Hispanic cultures, from Don Quixote\u2019s windmills to Goya\u2019s colossus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Tyler Fisher (B.A. English Literature, 2002; B.A. Spanish, 2003) became Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s first Rhodes Scholar in December 2002. The scholarship enabled him to undertake a Master\u2019s in European Literature at the University of Oxford. Originally from Fort Myers, Fisher also is an author, poet and musician. He will visit the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ campus the first week of April to participate in…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":47569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14014,9689],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-47568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-barry-jason-mauer","tag-tyler-fisher"],"yoast_head":"\n