The Secret Lives of Professors
Ole Miss is home to a cadre of exceptional faculty who are recognized experts in fields such as computational hydroscience, the stock market, math and science education, natural products research and air warfare in Europe. But if you think professors do nothing but give lectures and conduct research, think again. Outside the classroom and the lab, their interests take some unusual twists and turns. Here’s a glimpse of what a few UM professors do in their spare time.
FOILEDAGAIN
In his advanced fencing class, John Matthews teaches moves such as the flying lunge. He told one student, “Use your legs. You’re only using your arms. Hit me. ... Oh, nice shot.”
Professor of pharmacology John Matthews is No. 15 in the nation in fencing in his age category (60+), wielding the type of sword known as a foil.
In fencing, which has been called physical chess, foil is the lightest sword, sabre is heavier and epee is heaviest.
“Fencing is about the same physical activity as varsity tennis or basketball, but it’s 90 percent mental,” Matthews said. “You’re constantly setting traps for your opponent and trying to avoid falling into opponents’ traps. … It’s pretty cool to be a fencer.”
Besides competing, Matthews is an Olympic-certified fencing instructor. He teaches beginner and advanced fencing for credit through UM’s Department of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management.
EDIBLEMASTERPIECES
Not only do Cory Lewis’ cakes look good, but they are also meant to taste good. All her creations are made from scratch. “Nothing comes from a mix,” she said.
Making cakes is just another form of art for Cory Lewis, an adjunct assistant professor.
“Every technique I’ve used in clay is transported into this material, from rolling out fondant to fashioning flowers. It’s sculpture,” said Lewis, who teaches design and ceramics courses.
One of her wedding cakes featured a three-dimensional hammerhead shark for a bride and groom who were both marine biologists; another matched a bride’s heirloom china.
Lewis received her training in pastry arts from the Institute for Culinary Education in New York City, where she also went on to be an instructor in pastry and baking. She has worked as a food stylist for television and print, and her cakes have been photographed for Brides and other magazines.
While working for a baker in New York, she made cakes for the rich and famous, including newscaster Katie Couric and actor Kenneth Branagh, but adds that her favorite cake-making experience was fulfilling the wishes of a little girl.
“She wanted a birthday cake that had a fairy on it, but she also wanted a fire-breathing dragon. The girl called [and said] ‘I just wanted to tell you that I loved my fire-breathing dragon.’ It was like, yeah, that’s why I do this.”
LADYPLAYSTHEBLUES
Wendy Garrison said that UM college students will find blues being performed at the Student Union, the Oxford Square and local restaurants, as well as Mississippi towns such as Holly Springs, Como and Greenwood. “It’s a part of our life here.”
“Within a week of moving to Oxford in August 1987, I had walked into the Blues Archive on campus and asked if anyone could teach me blues guitar,” Garrison said.
Walter Liniger, then a staff member in the Blues Archive who played and recorded with bluesman James “Son” Thomas, said he could.
“As soon as Walter showed me, I wanted to learn it. I was always trying to get together with people to play, and the slide was what got the ‘wows.’”
Garrison’s music has traces of Mississippi Hill Country blues, Delta blues, the Nashville pedal steel sound, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and the cadences of traditional church tunes.
After playing with a couple of bands in the late ’90s, she has gone solo and plays venues ranging from weddings and churches to blues festivals.
POET'SPEACE
UM Professor of English Ann Fisher-Wirth has found a balance between her love of literature and yoga, which is easy to do in Oxford, where she has used the grounds of William Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak, for her early morning yoga workout.
Fisher-Wirth started taking yoga classes in 1976, when her second daughter was a baby. She was then living in Southern California, studying at Claremont Graduate School.
“At first, yoga was a way of getting my figure and flexibility back after having a baby—not to mention a way of getting a quiet hour to myself each week. Quickly it developed into something much deeper,” she said.
She now also teaches yoga through the university’s outreach division and cites its many benefits.
“It increases strength, balance, grace and flexibility. It teaches powerful techniques to aid in clarity and relaxation,” Fisher-Wirth said.
In her “day job,” Fisher-Wirth has written several books, including Five Terraces, Blue Window: Poems, The Trinket Poems, and William Carlos Williams an Autobiography: The Woods of His Own Nature. “The presence of Square Books and of so many fine writers makes Oxford a wonderful literary community,” she said.
‘SPORTSDOCTORS’
History professor Charles Ross (left) and political science professor Marvin King share their sports insights on a weekly television show.
This particular segment was taped after the New York Giants’ playoff win over the Green Bay Packers and before the Giants’ Super Bowl win.
The sports Ph.D.s are Charles Ross, associate professor of history and director of the African American studies program, and Marvin King, assistant professor of political science and African American studies. So far, they’ve done about 20 shows since fall 2007, taping segments once a week and having a ball doing it.
“He’s a sports geek like me,” said Ross about King. “I have more of a passion for the three major sports [football, baseball and basketball]. He’s really into tennis and maybe has more love for college football. We defer to each other’s expertise when talking.”
Micah Ginn, producer of “Sports Doctors,” said that King and Ross come incredibly prepared to talk sports every week. “They’re sports encyclopedia-type guys. They’re really good sports analysts.”
DEANOFFIREFIGHTING
To become a volunteer firefighter, Honors College Dean Douglass Sullivan-González (left) had to take an introductory course and pass the test at the State Fire Academy in Jackson, Miss.
Douglass Sullivan-González, dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, enjoys putting out fires, literally.
He is one of about 150 volunteer firefighters in Lafayette County (about 20 are UM students). He started volunteer firefighting as an undergraduate in 1978.
“I’ve always enjoyed the adrenaline rush of going to a fire, sizing up what has to happen and then getting the job done,” he said.
At a fire scene, sometimes Sullivan-González is assigned as the safety officer, but he can also be “the guy on the hose, or the water shuttle command officer, or the guy who just helps roll up hose after a big structure fire. … It is so much more fun to be on the hose than calling the shots!” he said.
HEDOESTHEHUSTLE
Scott Vitell, chair of marketing in the School of Business Administration, likes to tango in his spare time. He also likes to waltz, foxtrot, swing, cha cha and rumba.
“My wife, Caren, had always wanted to dance, but when some friends of ours started taking ballroom dance lessons and enjoying it, that convinced me to join their group dance class,” he said.
The Vitells belong to a ballroom dancing club with about 70 members. The club meets on campus once a month at, where else?, the Johnson Commons Ballroom. At each meeting, the members learn a new dance.
“The basic merengue is a fairly easy dance as is the club swing [aka the hustle],” Vitell said. “However, all dances can be as difficult as you want them to be, because once you ‘master’ one aspect of a dance, you can virtually always upgrade your dancing to a higher level.”
