In her 19 years at Virginia Tech, associate professor and associate chair of the Department of English, Gena Chandler has held a number of roles both inside and outside the university: teacher, scholar, mentor, daughter, mother. 

Reflecting on her time here, she sits in conversation with Kimberly Clark, director of the Black Cultural Center, to share how she has grown and what she has learned along the way.

 

KIMBERLY CLARK: So, maybe the first thing we should do is formally introduce you.

GENA CHANDLER: Okay, my name is Gena Chandler. I am an associate professor in the Department of English. I have also serve as the associate chair of the department. [Formerly] I was the director of graduate studies and the director of the master's program in English.

I got to Virginia Tech in 2004. So, I’m going into year 19 at Virginia Tech. I got my PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I moved here shortly after completing my doctoral work there, after a brief stint in San Francisco on a dissertation fellowship. [This is where] I landed my first academic job. I've been here ever since.

CLARK: Wow, I did not know that—that you have been here in these mountains for almost 20 years. How has your role as a faculty member, and as a Black faculty member, changed over the years you've been here? Has it been different from one administration to the other?

CHANDLER: That question is hard for me to answer as there are a few questions embedded in the one. So, let me start with the first one I heard, “what do I think is the role of a faculty member here at Virginia Tech,” which I think may be slightly different from the role of say, of a faculty person of color here at Virginia Tech.

Tech has become more diverse as the years have progressed. It's made larger strides from when I first arrived on campus. But I think in many ways, my relationship to the university and to students continues to be the same…students, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, or any other aspect of their identity, are looking for faculty members who can be resources. They are looking not just for teachers whom they learn things about or from in the classroom, but [teachers] with whom they can connect and find points of commonality to help them navigate this journey that is college, but I think also the journey that is life.

The students that I see now—not suggesting that students almost 20 years ago weren't doing this but I find it more now—they are seeking out community. They're seeking out connections. They're seeking out resources.

I've always felt that my role as a faculty member doesn't just reside in the classroom, that I have a strong responsibility to service and a commitment to bringing my talents and my knowledge to students in ways that are helpful to them as they shape and develop their academic life here—and their professional life beyond. I try to make myself a resource and to let students know I'm a resource in terms of how seriously I take the courses that I teach and in the material that I provide. I always want discussion to be a two-way street where they are learning not only from me, but we are learning from each other. And that we're using that information to help develop the well-rounded student, the well-rounded person who can take pieces of information or material that they've gleaned from me in the classroom environment, in our interactions, and they can take that out into the world with them and out into their daily lives.

And I think, as a human being, it is what we all work to do, right? To give the best parts of ourselves, to glean the best parts from others, and to continue to grow and to move forward as we go through this thing called life together.

So, I guess I hope that answers your question. I think that's how I see myself and my role at the institution. I see that roll being one for all students whom I encounter and engage.

CLARK: That is very insightful. To follow that, what would you say that you do to serve your students the most? And I'll narrow that: how do you feel like you best serve Black students at Virginia Tech as one of the few Black women of color teaching here at the university?

CHANDLER: Well, I mean, I think on one level, we are talking about representation. Identity is important. I think it's important for students to see an African-American woman, you know, in the classroom, in the position of “Professor.” [It’s important for students] to see that these things are possible, so they can see themselves in these roles.

I wanted to get a PhD since I was 16. And that had a lot to do with encouragement that I received by one of my high school English professors. She's no longer with us, but a wonderful woman by the name of Mrs. Hilda Alderman. But it was also being in a culture that supported and thrived on academic excellence and reflected that kind of excellence back to me.

My parents were both first-generation college students. My father was born in the 1920s, my mother in the late 1930s. All of my siblings went to college. High academic and scholastic achievement was something that was modeled for me. Because I saw my parents and my older siblings go to college and get college degrees, I saw myself in those spaces. In the same way, I think that it's important for students to see faculty of color in positions in the university environment: as professors, as deans, as provosts, as presidents of universities. It enables them to envision themselves in those spaces, and see these journeys as being possible.

I think another way that I try to serve Black students is through the courses I teach—courses in African-American literature, post-colonial lit, I do some theory. An example is that in my African-American literature class, I'm always trying to reflect, particularly to Black students and students who identify from various parts of the Black diaspora, that our stories are diverse and they are complex. That they are beautiful and they are extraordinary.

I think one of the great misconceptions about ethnic literatures in general, but I'll speak to the teaching of African-American literature in particular, is that there's only one story to tell. You know, many students may enter my classroom environment, and I've heard this for numerous years, and they presume that the only story that there is tell about, let's just say Black life in America, is one that is driven by tragedy, that it is driven by the stories of American chattel slavery and Jim Crow. So, one of the first things I do is try to demystify and dismantle the misinformation. [To show] that our stories are quite complex. And that they predate European colonization and enslavement of people of African descent. I've often found, not just for Black students, but for many students, that understanding those complexities of Black stories, even if you just say African-American stories, really opens up for them a new world. And I think that's what has always made what I do a part of my passion, a part of my love. Because I feel like that's a service. When you give people new knowledge and information, you give them new realms and ways of thinking. That's why I'm an English professor.

My mother was a high school librarian for more than 40 years and so books populated my life. I picked a profession that spoke a lot to my passions. And one of the reasons I think that teaching literature, talking about literature, writing about literature, reading is so critical to me . . . is that I have so much knowledge at my fingertips through the pages of these various texts. And they have opened me up to new understandings about my world—people like me, people different from me. And I think when you do that, you expand your way of thinking.

If anything, with all of my students, I want to expand their way of thinking. I don't want to have them think like me, or necessarily believe what I believe. But I want to give them the tools to think expansively. Because I think when we think expansively, we think creatively, and when we think creatively, we really stretch the bounds of where we can go to infinite links. And I think that's important.

CLARK: How did you end up here at Virginia Tech?

CHANDLER: I was doing a dissertation fellowship in San Francisco and looking for jobs. An opportunity came open at Virginia Tech. I came and I interviewed and I felt like this was a great fit for me, a young career professional, to build my career. I had an outstanding, extraordinary mentor in the now retired Dr. Virginia Fowler, who's Professor Emerita in the Department of English. A wonderful scholar, teacher, mentor, friend in her own right, who did major research on Nikki Giovanni, Gloria Naylor, Henry James. It just was a fit.

For those who are interested in academia, I think finding the place where you can fit and feel like you can thrive and do the work is critically important. I never thought I would be at Virginia Tech. I didn't necessarily think I would be here this long. But I have made a home here. I've made a career here. I think most importantly, I feel as if I can flourish in this space and continue to give back to the university and to the community of students and faculty who are here. So that's, you know, that's why I'm here.

CLARK: So, how do you direct your work and your research to benefit your scholarship in the midst of a PWI [a predominantly white institution]?

CHANDLER: I really feel like my scholarship has always been an extension, and I don't mean for this to sound trite, but I feel like my scholarship has always been an extension of my experiences. And to be honest with you, I can't really compare what my scholarship would be like if I were at an HBCU versus my scholarship here because my professional career has always been here.

I am a graduate of an HBCU. I'm a graduate of FAMU (Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University). But I was I was at FAMU between the ages of 18 and 21. So I can't really say what my professional scholarship now would have been like if I were at an HBCU.

I can tell you that I bring my parts of myself wherever I go. And I've always felt like that my work is an extension of that. Things that I have written have often been an extension of things deeply connected or linked to parts of my life. You know, my first book, The Wanderer in African-American Literature, was very much seeded in my personal experiences of growing up in a small town in North Central Florida, in having a very unique story about Black family, and the types of experiences and pathways that my family members have taken personally in terms of faith. [It grew from] all these sorts of things and presumptions that sometimes I felt confronted me when people assumed how my Blackness was supposed to be enacted, how it was supposed to be expressed.

A lot of my work focuses on reminding people that we are not a monolith. There are many different stories to tell, and there's a great richness and depth to Black American stories and how those stories get told. My interests in my research are focused on, in that particular book, prose expressions often in the novel form of writers who challenged our presuppositions about Black identity and Black selfhood. That clearly had a lot to do with my own personal upbringing and how I grew up and those sorts of things as I was navigating through life.

I guess I would say to you that everywhere I am, I try to find ways to bring the best parts of myself out and my research is no different. I'm looking for ways to speak to the voices inside my head, the things that I think about, that drive me, that then animate the work that I do—how I teach and how I read or interpret things. I'm always trying to figure out ways to help people understand me, those who are interested, and to share that knowledge with my students and then to learn from others.

I can't really give you a comparison, because I've only taught at a predominately white institution. I have experiences at HBCUs as well as here. But I like to think that I'm Gena in all of those spaces, you know? And that I find ways to be who I am and be true to that in all of those spaces. I mean, obviously there are things about being at a predominately white institution that are more challenging or different than when I was at FAMU. But I'm still Gena and there are things that I bring to bear in being Gena in all those spaces that come out of my research, my teaching, and how I deal with people and engage with them on the everyday.

CLARK: How do you think we can help strengthen the relationship with alumni, specifically black alumni, with our students to best benefit the students?

CHANDLER: I'm not an alumna of Virginia Tech, but I can think about this from my own perspective as an alumna of FAMU, an alumna of UNC Chapel Hill, and how I think about my relationships to those institutions. I think one thing is bringing the university to the alumni and bringing the alumni to the university again, right? None of none of us can recreate our undergraduate or graduate experiences, but I think what keeps you committed to the institution and committed to, in this case the BCC, is reminding people of their connections. Maybe establish an alumni board. [A group of] former Tech folks who've now graduated and gone on to different careers who would advise the BCC so you have the voice of alumni involved in programming, involved in development.

Also, keep them abreast and aware of what's going on with Black students at Virginia Tech, with the Black Cultural Center, with types of programming and events [you host] so they feel like if they want to and are able to be connected, they can. I think that the age of COVID has taught us that virtual engagement can be a real strength. Maybe have a virtual series, where alumni can participate in talks, or participate in the types of things that they would have experienced as a student. Again, I think it's building those bridges, making those connections so that what seems at once so far away, is actually still near. Being able to connect in those ways is super important.

In many ways, I think we get that experience when we go home for homecoming, or we go home to where we are from to visit and we go to our places where we grew up. It's about continuing to nurture and to build those bonds, even though [alumni] no longer are in those spaces, [even though] they live other places. It's making connections very personal. Significant ways where you bring the two sides together again, almost as if they never left, they never parted.

CLARK: In your experience, can you describe your relationship with the BCC? How has it changed? How has it grown—or not grown? What have you seen in the past 19 years?

CHANDLER: When I first got here, the BCC was a hub of Black cultural life at Tech. I could go to the BCC to stay connected to the students, to what the students were interested in, to what they were doing. If I had questions or concerns about a student, I felt I could go to the director of the BCC at that time and say, ‘Hey, do you know the students?’

When I first was here, the director was Takiyah Nur Amin. She knew all the students. I wasn't a student, but I was a new faculty member also new to the area. I think I told you that she was teaching an African dance class. I used to do her African dance class weekly. I still have relationships today with people I met in that class. It gave me a community that didn't have coming to southwest Virginia, never having lived here, not knowing anyone, not having any family in this area.

So, the BCC wasn't just a place for programming. It was a place that created community for me. It was an extended network of like-minded people. I felt like I had a place that I could go to, to feel welcome.

I think over the years—and this isn't so much about the BCC as it is about my role at the institution as I moved up the ranks, and as I gained more responsibility—my ability to come and do or see programing at the BCC [isn’t as great]. I don't have as much access to that. But I also think over the last couple of years, I haven't known as much about what's going on in the BCC. It would be really great to have a faculty listserv that said this is the programming coming up in the BCC in February, this is the calendar events coming up in March, so that I can go and participate. Over the years there has been more social media, more ways to get information out. But now it seems harder to follow, harder to keep connecting.

I don't think that's an indication of anyone or anything, I think it has more to do with me than anything, just what's happened in my life. I didn't have a 10-year-old, you know, I didn’t have a kid when I first got here. My life was different. I think I think that has changed my engagement with the BCC. But it's definitely a type of community engagement that I want to continue to nurture. And I think this conversation reminds me of how the BCC has been critical to my success here at Virginia Tech. I mean, that's no exaggeration. It really was a safe space. It really was a nurturing space. For me, when I first arrived, there was many years ago, as an assistant professor newly out of grad school, trying to figure this academic thing out.

CLARK: That's very, very good to hear. It’s very helpful in so many ways, not just for this piece. This is all good for me to know. And I hope that can happen. The BCC is more student centered now, which is great. I mean, it's poppin’, there are students there all the time. But I would love to see it grow into other things as well.

CHANDLER: Yeah, it’d be great to find a way for the student center to be a cultural meeting spot for students and faculty.

CLARK: Absolutely. A couple of faculty members they hold their office hours there, and we have some programming. But nothing right now is consistent. Things are just kind of starting and developing. We will keep working on it, though.

So I know, it's been almost an hour. But I did want to ask you one final question that I think will be very relevant to a lot of alumni—I think would be helpful for a lot of us period. What do you do for self-care and how do you find balance in your roles as a faculty member, as a mother, as a human being?

CHANDLER: So, this is something I've really been thinking a lot about lately. I think for me, my physical health is one of the ways in which I generate care of self or self-care. I'm really serious about working out—doing something physical in my day. I go to the gym at least four to five days a week. Because if our physical health isn't good, nothing else is. That's really my mental health space, too. I find that if I'm dealing with issues or stress, that's a good place for me to work it out. I've recently started doing these HITT workouts, [and] that's helpful to me. I was serious about your African dance class, if I can ever get my schedule together.

I'm also really trying to focus right now on sleep. We resist sleep because we supposed to be working, working, working. I'm really working on knowing when to shut it down. And I'm not good at it yet. Because I have a 10-year-old who I have to get to bed. But if I send my kid to bed at 9:30, I need to go to bed—I need to shut it down, too. I'm really trying to get my seven to eight hours a day. I function better, I do better when I do that.

My final element of self-care, and maybe this has come on with age, I'm really working on learning to let it go. To not let others mess with my mood or my day. You are in control of your mood and your day. I have a friend who the end of her voicemail message says, “make it a great day”. Love it. We all have the opportunity to make our day a great day if we make conscious choices and decisions. Yes, there are things in the day that we cannot control. But there are things that you can control. And one of them is how you react to those things that you cannot control.

This year I started a gratitude jar. Every day I put something that I’m grateful for. I think we don't spend enough time finding the good and praise. Particularly as an academic, you're always thinking about your next project. That’s a hamster wheel that you just can't ever seem to stop. So, I'm working on, quoting the writer Alex Haley, to “find the good and praise it” – [learning to acknowledge] the things that I'm doing well, the ways I'm succeeding, the things that I'm making work.

CLARK: You have inspired me for so many reasons. It is so important to hear from someone that's been here for a long time and making it work and not killing yourself in the process. I will be texting you because I definitely want to connect about several things in the future. Thank you for your time.