Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of profiles on the instructors at Camosun College. Every issue we ask a different instructor at Camosun the same 10 questions in an attempt to get to know them a little better.
Do you have an instructor that you want to see interviewed in the paper? Maybe you want to know more about one of your teachers, but you’re too busy, or shy, to ask? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll add your instructor to our list of teachers to talk to.
This issue we talked to Camosun Anthropology prof Karoline Guelke about eating cafeteria food, growing up in East Germany, and drenching things in pesto.
1. What do you teach and how long have you been at Camosun?
I’m a cultural anthropologist and teach first- and second-year Anthropology. I taught at Camosun between 2005 and 2011 and am now back part-time, replacing a colleague.
2. What do you personally get out of teaching?
I really enjoy sharing my interest and excitement about anthropology. I first came to Canada as an international student in 1994; it was a time when I was trying to figure out who I was—an ongoing project—while getting oriented in a new culture. My first anthropology classes were eye-opening and helped me make sense of my own experiences. It comforts me to know that there are many different ways of being in the world and not just one way to do this “right.” As a teacher I now get to think of how to present material and, hopefully, engage students so they feel some of the excitement I felt in my first classes. That is very rewarding.
3. What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
I struggle with a lot of the same things they do—I doubt myself; I find citation styles confusing; it takes me a long time to write a paragraph that makes sense. I don’t really know where I’m going, but I’ve ended up in some pretty exciting places. So, to get to a more profound statement, I think the trick is to keep going anyway and recognize our commonalities.
4. What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
I don’t think I’ve let out any dark secrets yet; it’s that training I got when growing up in East Germany. (Mind you, I do wonder if they notice that I wear the same pair of jeans a lot.)
5. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
It’s great to see students get excited by new ideas and make connections between course material and their own lives. Anthropology is about understanding people, about cultural diversity and our common humanity, and that is relevant to so many parts of our lives.
6. What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
The cafeteria food, and funding cuts.
7. What do you see in the future of post-secondary education?
It concerns me how many students are struggling with student loans and work pressures, and how taking classes just becomes a means to an end. There seems to be an increasing trend to regard post-secondary education simply as job training, and this is certainly an important aspect. But this is also a great opportunity to challenge one’s opinions and to discover new ideas and interests. As an undergraduate, I had the great privilege of being able to choose classes I enjoyed without feeling too much pressure about how this would immediately translate into a job. This allowed me to explore and find what interested me, and as a result I have ended up with work I really like and where I feel I can make a difference. In this rapidly changing world with many environmental and social problems, we need people who can think critically and have found a way to contribute that fits for them. I hope that, in the future, proper government support and lower tuition fees will facilitate this for all students. Or how about no tuition fees? Germany has abolished tuition, and the place still runs pretty well.
8. What do you do to relax on the weekends?
Weekends? That has been a somewhat meaningless concept while finishing my PhD. But the end is now in sight, and I look forward to getting out for more hikes. I also really need to do something with the neglected flowerpots on my balcony.
9. What is your favourite meal?
Hmmm, many things: green curry, things drenched in pesto, dark chocolate (not necessarily a meal, but…), fresh bread.
10. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Cars that honk when you block them. Those sheets people put in the dryer that reek of chemicals. Lack of consideration and kindness.