Finding Greatness: Dr. Lorraine Dubuisson

Author: News Bureau
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2024 12:00 AM
Categories: Finding Greatness | Pressroom | Faculty/Staff | Honors/Awards | School of Arts and Letters

Macon, GA

Dr. Lorraine Dubuisson of MGA’s English faculty is the recipient of the inaugural Provost’s Award. The award recognizes a faculty member’s significant contributions in teaching, scholarship, and service.

Full Name:  Dr. Lorraine Dubuisson

Title: Professor of English.

Degrees: Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in Victorian literature from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).

Describe your service to Middle Georgia State University and the community at large.

“I have served on numerous University-wide committees, often in positions of leadership such as chair or recorder, every year since I was tenured. I have served on the Faculty Senate almost every year since I earned tenure; I have served two terms as senate chair. It has been incredibly humbling and gratifying to do the kind of work I think genuinely makes the professional lives of my colleagues better.

“My service to my discipline centers around longstanding involvement in the Georgia Philological Association (GPA), a regional professional organization devoted to the discussion of language and literature, broadly conceived. I have served as the president of the GPA for multiple years, and my duties include organizing the annual conference. The GPA publishes a blind, peer-reviewed journal, and I also serve on the editorial board and as a peer reviewer for the journal; I’m proud of the quality articles we publish on pedagogy, literary criticism, philosophy, and other subjects.

“Knight Writers is one of the achievements of which I am most proud and which provides service to the community and service to the institution. This event invites Honors English Bleckley County High School (BCHS) students to the Cochran campus for a day of poetry instruction led by MGA students; following the camp, MGA professional writing students create an anthology of the writing generated by the high school students during the camp that is housed on the MGA website. Knight Writers brings BCHS students to MGA for fun, educational experiences—key to recruiting them as future Knights—and provides hands-on, experiential learning for MGA students.”

What are some of your accomplishments as a Middle Georgia State faculty member?

“I have been chair of the Faculty Senate for the past two years.  Last year, I won the MGA Excellence in Service Award, and this year I won the MGA Provost's Award.”

What do you like best about teaching? 

“I have always wanted to be an English teacher.  My mother was a university professor of nursing, and I decided at age 5 that I wanted to be an English teacher to follow in my mom's footsteps in a way that does not involve being responsible for other people's health.  I love that what I do every day has a tangible effect on people's lives; the skills I teach help people to communicate more effectively, to obtain better and higher-paying jobs, and to understand the world around them in a more nuanced way.  I love that teaching allows me to exercise my intellectual curiosity.  I love learning, and I love that my job requires me to constantly explore new ideas in my field and new ways to teach.  Finally, I love that every semester is a new start with new students, new classes, and new material to teach.  This job never gets old because it is always changing.”

In your opinion, what does it take for students majoring in your discipline to be successful these days? 

“I think the following three things are key:  a willingness to ask for help and utilize campus resources, a focus on active reading strategies, and good note-taking skills.  So many students are afraid to talk to their professors about questions they have, and so many of them don't use the Writing Center and other resources we have available to help students succeed.  I am always excited to talk students through a reading they find confusing or about a draft of a paper with them.  Because we live in a world in which social media and other factors are diminishing our attention spans, I find that some of our students struggle to read effectively.  Focusing on active reading strategies like note taking and annotating can help to overcome that struggle.  Note-taking is something we never teach students at any level of their education, so figuring out how to take good notes on reading material and classroom material is also key.”

What would students be surprised to learn about you? 

“I think I am a pretty open book.  My love of cats and old people TV like Antiques Roadshow is proudly on display.  LOL. Perhaps a better answer is that I am one of the handful of people globally whose scholarship is devoted to Ouida, a female Victorian author, whose fiction and non-fiction works address issues such as environmentalism, marriage, and the emergence of celebrity culture.”