Meet Jennifer Munroe | Inside UNC Charlotte

After 20 years of service at UNC Charlotte, English professor Jennifer Munroe will retire next month. Check out his favorite memories on campus and his parting advice to students.

What has been the most rewarding part of your work and research?

My research and teaching have long gone hand in hand, and both are incredibly rewarding. One of my great joys as a faculty member has been getting students to interact with texts and ideas in ways that help them understand the past in a way that is relevant today. Whether it’s lessons on Shakespeare, or historical recipes and early modern writers, or food systems and sustainability, it’s very rewarding to see the look on students’ faces when they discover something they didn’t know or feel inspired to think. in a new way about something they thought they already knew.

Do you have a favorite UNC Charlotte memory to share?

When I think of my favorite moments at UNC Charlotte, I often imagine those times when my students and I took what we were learning out of the classroom and sent it outside or into the archives. My students and I made several trips to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., where we held in our hands some of the rare printed and manuscript materials from several hundred years ago that we were studying in class.

I also think of the time we discussed the power of the forest space in Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” as we walked through Van Landingham Glen on campus and experienced what it felt like to be enveloped by the canopy of a tree. We can read texts digitally or think about how the world around us (or in which those of the past lived) might be represented, but there is no substitute for touching centuries-old paper or being in the type of physical space that one could imagine. on the page.

What are three words to describe UNC Charlotte?

Three words to describe UNC Charlotte are “full of potential.”

What are your plans for retirement?

As my students and colleagues know, a love of the natural world has long been an important part of my work and life. The same goes for sustainability and environmental justice. Although I continue to work on my studies related to these interests, my retirement plans also involve spending more time in my garden, as well as volunteering with my area’s community garden program to combat insecurity eating.

What will you miss most about UNC Charlotte?

More than anything, I will miss my supportive colleagues and my engaged students. I feel fortunate to have known wonderful and inspiring people on our campus, students and faculty.

What advice would you give to your students?

There is so much pressure to view college as just a route to employment, and I understand that pressure. But I hope students remember that it is also an opportunity to think about the world in new and multiple ways, and that means being truly open to learning and considering the material they are studying, not just trying to complete assignments to get a grade and move on.

The humanities offer, among other things, a way to cultivate empathy and a range of perspectives as well as critical thinking and writing, and these skills are now and will be absolutely essential to our future on the planet. I encourage students to think about how they might develop these skills throughout their time at university, perhaps by traveling (or studying!) abroad, which is another way to cultivate these skills and their self-esteem as human beings and not just as future employees. .