Ruth L. Copp
Lecturer of English
B.A., Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, 1968
M.A.T. in reading, Saginaw Valley State University, 1998
I teach mainly in developmental reading and study strategies and have taught developmental writing, freshman composition, multicultural young adult literature (TE508 for the Department of Education), ENGL 380, ENGL 212 with the theme of censorship, and creative nonfiction/travel writing. I have also taught high school English, all levels, in New Jersey, Ohio, and Michigan. Recently, with Dan Villaire, I developed a summer 190 course (reading and study strategies) for the nursing grant for minority juniors and seniors in high school who will be attending SVSU to pursue nursing careers.
I come from a family of educators including an ancestor described as "the schoolmaster of Indiana," my grandparents, my mother and aunts. My son, Dan, lives in Oregon and majored in Medieval and Renaissance History at the University of Michigan; he is now a computer engineer. My son, David, majored in philosophy at the University of Michigan and earned a law degree at University of Illinois; he is now in Chicago. John, my husband, is a retired chemical engineer. In the summer of 2011, my family (siblings in Oregon, California, and Washington, D.C.), will celebrate my father's 90th birthday. He drove out from California and on to D.C. this summer (2010) and is the great storyteller, reader, and patriarch of my extended family of 3 siblings and 19 cousins. Although I don't get to travel much, I love to do so and would move to Siena, Italy if I could. As for hobbies, I love the movies, especially Fargo and anything by the Coen brothers, anything with Jack Nicholson or Christopher Walken, Casablanca, Resurrection, Stand by Me, and countless others. My favorite music right now is Frank Sinatra, Chris Isaak, and Pink Martini. My favorite authors: Bill Bryson, John McPhee, Anne Tyler, Jack Finney, Caleb Carr, Allen Eckert, Sarah Vowell, Ambrose Bierce, etc. My favorite TV shows are Boston Legal, Seinfeld, The Daily Show (esp. Lewis Black), and The Colbert Report.
Favorite undergrad moment: When I was in Dr. Truesdale's class at Macalester, I loved his sarcastic, mocking discussion of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.
Favorite teaching moment at SVSU: All of the times students have thanked me for helping them understand how to succeed-so, I love to see students who are intellectually curious and receptive to the opportunities SVSU offers.
Five books Ruth would like to have with her if marooned on a deserted island: The five books (wow, only 5!): The Family of Man (photographs), A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Time and Again by Jack Finney, From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun, Art History by Marilyn Stockstad, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. Okay, so I listed six.