Profiles

Carol Severino, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

	Carol Severino, associate professor of rhetoric in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

When Carol Severino became director of the UI Writing Center in 1990, it was a twice-a-week tutoring option available only to students. Now the center, staffed by graduate students, has a booming e-mail tutoring business, expanded hours, and five satellite centers—including one at the Iowa City Public Library, where the public can seek help with writing.

Severino also directs the Writing Fellows Program, and holds appointments as an associate professor of rhetoric in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and an associate professor in International Programs. Outside work, she’s a mom and wife who travels, takes classes, and swims and walks near her Coralville Lake home. Severino sat down with fyi to discuss her career, her family, and her desire to play the drums.

What twists did your career path take on the way to The University of Iowa?

I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Long Island—a town of 60,000 called Valley Stream that used to brag that it was the largest village in the world. My first choice for college was Oberlin College—the school my sons ended up attending. But I didn’t get in, so I went to my next choice, Valparaiso University. That was probably best because in the late ’60s, Oberlin was radical, and I was sheltered. I got a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, with minors in sociology and English.

After that, I was a social worker in Lake County, Ind.—in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. I was a Spanish-speaking caseworker with the county’s Cuban refugee program.

I did that for three years, but Lake County wasn’t the greatest place for singles, so I moved to Chicago to teach English as a second language. I enrolled in a master’s program in applied linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I got a job there teaching writing in an opportunity program for kids who were differently qualified, mostly black and Latino kids from inner-city Chicago.

In 1980, I entered a PhD program in English—the language, literacy, and rhetoric track, which prepared you to work in a first-year college composition and rhetoric program. I got married and had two kids, so I didn’t graduate until 1989. I tried to find jobs in the Chicago area because I didn’t want to uproot the family, but the job market there was tough, and everyone said, “Don’t sit on your PhD.” So I applied to 20 places the next year and got three offers. This was definitely the best one.
 
Fill us in on your family.

My husband, Rodney Patterson, is a sculptor and woodworker. I have twin sons, age 25. Cedric is an attorney in Los Angeles, and Michael is a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador.
 
Speaking of Ecuador, you’re headed there again in the spring, right?

Yes. I received a Fulbright award to teach at the Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito.

Last spring, my family went to Ecuador to visit my son, and I had developmental leave, so I stayed to study an indigenous language, Quichua. My son found me a family to live with in Tena, the gateway to the Amazon jungle. It was like study abroad for senior citizens.

This time, I’m going to teach an Ecuadorian version of travel writing and a course on Native American, Asian American, and African American literature. Ecuador is a multicultural society, with more than 22 ethnic and language groups, so students are interested in ethnic relationships in the United States. I’ll be teaching a graduate course on teaching English as a second language. I may also help start a writing and speaking center.

You have your PhD, but that doesn’t stop you from taking classes. What have you taken?

Mostly Spanish and Italian. The inspiration for taking Italian was being Italian and not knowing Italian—very embarrassing. The inspiration to take Spanish was to keep up, because if you don’t use it, you lose it. I’m going to take creative writing in Spanish before I go to Ecuador.

I hear you play the drums. Tell us about that.

I’ve been drumming since I was 10. I almost passed out playing the clarinet, so I needed something that I didn’t have to huff and puff and blow. I asked the band director to sign me up for drums, and he said, “You mean glockenspiel. Girls don’t play the drums.” But I begged, so he let me.

Now, I play in two configurations. For five years, I was in a band called Rough Draft. Now, just the bass player and I are left from that group, and we have a new group with a former rhetoric teacher and a former truck driver. It doesn’t have a name. We play rock and roll covers. The other configuration is a hand-drumming group, the Yahoo Drummers. We play at the Iowa Arts Festival, the Iowa Children’s Museum, and at churches. We just pass out instruments, get a rhythm going, and everybody plays.

by Nicole Riehl

Past Profiles

Rachel Marie-Crane Williams, College of Education

Sandy Conrad, Facilities Management Custodial Service

Kembrew McLeod, Communication Studies

Penny Kaelber, Iowa Memorial Union