| Faculty Interview
Dr. Elaine Lux
Professor of English (NYC Campus) |
Dr. Lux began teaching at Nyack in 1991 |
Degrees Earned: |
Ph.D. from The Union Institute 1999
in Literature, Writing, and Adult Development. Dissertation: "No Longer a Stranger: Co-Creation and the Healing Connection."
M.A. in English from The University of Pennsylvania 1967
B.A. in English from Queens College 1966
Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude, High
Departmental Honors in English
(Minor in Secondary Education) |
Publications: |
PUBLICATION OF ARTICLES
1. "Imagining Ethnic Trauma and Healing: Narrative Approaches and Fictional Techniques."
Journal title: Story Telling: A Critical Journal of Popular Narrative 5.2 (Winter 2006): 93-103.
2. "The Expanding 'I' in ABSOLUTE TRUTHS," in SCANDALOUS TRUTHS:ESSAYS BY AND ABOUT SUSAN HOWATCH. Ed. Bruce Arthur Johnson and Charles A. Huttar. Susquehanna Press. (in process of being published)
3. "Narrative Bones: Amy Tan's THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER and Hugh Cook's THE HOMECOMING MAN." In THE GIFT OF STORY:NARRATING HOPE IN A POSTMODERN WORLD. Ed. Emily Griesinger and Mark Eaton. (article accepted for inclusion in the anthology; the anthology is awaiting final review and acceptance by the board of a university press)
PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
1."Imagining Trauma: A Literary Approach to Ethnic and Societal Healing Through Narrative." 2004- Narrative Matters 2004 Conference (Fredericton, Canada)
2. "Assessment of Student Learning." 2004-copresenter with Judith Krom- at CAHEA (Philadelphia)
3. "Catastrophe and THE NEXT STEP IN THE DANCE." 2003- Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, at Bluffton College
4. "Bone Myths and Hope in Amy Tan's THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER." 2002- Northeast Conference on Christianity and Literature, at St. Francis College
5."WIT: Truth and the Christian Imagination." 2002- Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, at University of Dayton
6. "Covey's Habits and Synergetic Learning Community." 2002- collaborative with Blondell Anderson and John McGarrity- at AHEA/ACE 2002 INTERNATIONAL
7. "Narrative Bones: From Haunting to Healing in Amy Tan's THE BONESETTER'S DAUGHTER and Hugh Cook's THE HOMECOMING MAN." 2002- Western Region Conference on Christianity and Literature, at Azusa Pacific University
8. "Using Writing and Story to Enhance Mutual Care and Courage." 2001- Jean Baker Miller Summer Advanced Training Institute, at Wellesley College
9. "In the Interstices of Faith: Interplay between Fiction and Biblical Texts." 2000- The Open Book and Scholarship Conference Program, at Redeemer University College (Ancona, Canada)
10. "A Time for Healing: Healing Connection in Toni Morrison's BELOVED." 1999- Northeast Regional Christianity and Literature Conference, at Nyack College
11. "The Elusive Presence of God in the Family Photo Collection in Lisa Alther's KINFLICKS." 1999- Midwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, at Campbellsville University
12. "Interminglings of the Sacred and the Secular in C.S. Lewis's TILL WE HAVE FACES." Northeast Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature, at St. Francis College
13. "Life AFTER THE FALL." Southwestern Conference on Christianity and Literature, at Harding University. Also read original poetry. |
Ministries: |
1. Teaching adult Sunday School class on the Book of Hebrews, since 2003, every week at my home church, The Warwick Valley Church of the Nazarene.
2. Teaching in Children's Church ministry, about once every 6 weeks, since 2000, at my home church (WVCN). |
Personal Questions |
Tell us about your spiritual journey. |
I have been a Christian since 1975. As my heritage is Jewish, I identify myself sometimes as a Jewish Christian. It is Christ who has given me connection to my Jewish roots, and now Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, David, Elisha, Elijah, among others, are my friends in Christ.
I gave my life to the Lord while I was pregnant with my first child. I saw how much I wanted to protect this child (yet in my womb) from all disasters and sorrows in life, and I began to consider how much God loved me (and all humanity) to sacrifice his son on our behalf. I was reading the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA series, by C.S.Lewis, at the time, as well as the book of Matthew, in the New Testament, and David Wilkerson's THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE. God touched my heart mightily with the reality of Jesus at that time, through what I was reading, people I was meeting, and the sovereign grace of the Holy Spirit. Significantly, this sovereign grace allowed me to see Christ in the two Passover Seders I celebrated that year. During the seders, I kept seeing Christ's sacrifice symbolized (prefigured) in the blood over the door placed there so the angel of death would pass over the household. I saw Christ hidden in the ceremony through the three matzohs that are placed in one cover, with the middle matzoh broken and hidden. Before my first child was born, I had given my life to the Lord.
At that time, I knew that nothing in my life would be, or could be, the same. This decision was life-changing. I think that it was because I knew the commitment had to be total that I had dreams of persecution, in my early days as a Christian. These dreams, to my immense surprise -- I'd never had such dreams before -- were about Nazi persecution. In these dreams, I was trying to run away from threatening would-be captors. The dreams continued until I was able to turn to those chasing me -- even as David Wilkerson turned to Nicky Cruz who threatened to cut him up -- and say: "No matter what you do to me, Jesus loves you, and I do, too. He is real, and his love is real." Then the persecution dreams stopped. I think that this experience allowed me to know all the way down, even in my sleep, that I was a changed person - believing in and transformed by the love of Christ, my Jewish messiah, my savior. |
Tell us about your family |
My husband is a (retired) college English teacher, who now teaches on an adjunct basis for Nyack College and for Baruch College. We met at Baruch College (the word "baruch" means "blessed" in Hebrew). I was teaching there as an adjunct, and he was a full-time faculty member.
We have three adult children, all blessings in my life. Our eldest child, a son, was born in 1975; our middle child, a daughter, in 1976; our youngest child, a son, in 1986. |
Any outside interests or hobbies? |
| I love reading literature and writing various kinds of creative work -- poetry, prose -- and writing in expository and academic forms, as well. My favorite kinds of writing are to do with writing for personal growth and healing. I enjoy attending prayer meetings in home settings and praying with friends even as we walk along the way. I am very busy with teaching work, and so do not have much time for many hobbies; however, since I love reading and writing and teaching (I wanted to be a teacher ever since my childhood), you might say that reading and writing and teaching are almost like hobbies, too. Teaching is a passion of mine -- so that I do not consider teaching merely a job, but a ministry as well. |
How were you led to Nyack and/or why are you here? |
The short version of my story: I felt led to come here. I fell in love with Nyack College the first time I visited it.
The more in depth version (if you are interested):
After the birth of my youngest child, in 1986, I retired temporarily from my full-time job to be at home with him. I returned to teaching, but only on a part-time basis, four years later, starting as a part-time mentor in English at Empire State College (a SUNY school) one day per week. When SUNY budget cuts threatened to remove funds for my part-time position at Empire State College, I happened to see a student-oriented ad in my local paper advertising what was then called the ADCP, Nyack's Adult Degree Completion Program. The ad seemed to light up for me. I phoned ADCP, and inquired whether they needed a faculty member. Indeed I was needed, and I was hired. The budget cuts at Empire State College did not affect my work there; however, I was hired at Nyack part-time, and I carried both part-time jobs. The interdisciplinary work I did for ADCP was interesting to me, and the classes were in the evening, so I had the days with my (by then) four-year-old child. After a few years, I was hired full-time, with ADCP. I taught a variety of subjects there, mostly in the social sciences and in research paper writing, even as I continued to teach English in my part-time job and in some adjunct courses for Nyack. However, I was beginning to feel led to return to the field of English full-time. I completed my doctorate, in 1999 at The Union Institute. (Previously, I had a Master's degree in English, from the University of Pennsylvania and all my coursework and language exams completed toward my Ph.D. at CUNY's Graduate Center, but had not done my dissertation-- so never received my doctorate.) I received a call from Dr. David Turk asking me to head up our new major on the city campus: English. (English was already a major on the Rockland Campus, but the city campus was in its earlier stages of growth.) I felt the call was indeed a calling from God, as well as a human offer, and I am delighted and feel blessed to be teaching English here in Manhattan, on a full-time basis. |
What does your faith mean in your classroom or discipline? |
| Faith is part of our lives, our thoughts, our motivation. What we do together in the classroom, discussing literature or writing, never excludes our faith, even if we are appreciating literature which has a philosophical or faith-base that is different from ours. But surely, since God is our creator and the author and finisher of our faith, our reading literature and our writing creative pieces and expository essays helps us to participate in and understand better what being a creator means and what being an author means. Thus, hermeneutic questions germane to faith are germane to reading and writing literature, too. |
What does your faith mean in relationships (particularly with students)? |
My students are also my sisters and brothers. We pray together as a family. Our relationship emerges from our contacts in the academic context; however, my part of the relationship goes beyond the required obligations of teaching subject matter, grading papers, turning in grades. Students are precious people, and their lives and trials, as well as their insights, are important to me.
Although I am not sure how the following aspect will work itself out, I sense that God has called me here to minister in the healing of the church body, as well as to teach English-related subjects. My avid personal interest is in using writing for personal growth and healing. I hope to use what I have learned to bless those who are hurting. |
What are your favorite courses to teach? |
| I like teaching many courses. Among my favorites are "The Bible as Literature," "Shakespeare," "Writing Theory," "Devotional Writing" (a new special topics offering), "Creative Writing," "Global Literature" -- and almost any course I am teaching at the time. |
What is/are your favorite book(s)? |
| Again, aside from the Bible, my favorite books are too many to list. Among my favorites are C.S.Lewis's TILL WE HAVE FACES and William Shakespeare's KING LEAR. Because literature lives inside us even while we're not reading it, my old favorite works live within me over the years -- even as I grow to admire and treasure new works. For example, one of my favorite poems was, and still is, William Butler Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium." This poem touched me when I was 16 (just starting college) -- and made me very aware that I'd better begin working on my inside life, for such a time as I would be old. Yeats's words touched me powerfully: "An aged man [woman for me, of course] is but a paltry thing,/ A tattered coat upon a stick, unless/ Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing/ For every tatter in its mortal dress." |
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Thanks for Coming Home to Nyack!
A big thank you to those who took the time and effort to attend Homecoming 2008—truly a weekend that will long be remembered. And congratulations to the classes of ‘53, ‘58, ‘63, ‘68, ‘73, ‘78, ‘83, ‘88, ‘93, ‘98... 
