Faculty Profile
Margaret France
English Instructor
Education
| Degree | Institution |
|---|---|
| BA English Lit | Grinnell College |
| MA English Lit | Washington State University |
| Ph.D. English Lit | University of California, Davis |
About Dr. France
After teaching in four countries on three continents, I can confidently say that the best students I've ever worked with are right here in the town where I grew up, Yakima. It is a privilege to welcome so many first-generation college students and Americans to higher education, especially since many of them are the siblings or children of the folks I know from Davis High School, Franklin Middle School, or Roosevelt Elementary.
My classes are designed to give students opportunities to understand and explain who they are and where they come from. They develop their reading and writing skills while creating pieces they might want to share with the people in their lives. We use as models texts written by people from marginalized communities because I believe that we learn more from people writing their way into the broader cultural narrative.
When I'm not teaching, I work to build queer community in Yakima. Growing up here, I experienced a lot of hostility as a young queer person. The courage that I see in the students I work with in YVC's PRIDE Club allows me to dream that one day Yakima will be a place where it is safe, even validating, to live authentically, however you were born or identify.