always the tone of surprise

I wanted to ask you about five people who inspire you and why. Be it in your personal life, your academic journey or just all over: for their work, what they achieved, embodied or taught you. It's totally up to you, if you feel comfortable with it of course!

Hello:) What a great question! Thank you. This was hard, but rewarding. 

The most inspiring person in my life was my grandmother.

She was a sassy little lady in flowing clothes, and she was my best friend. When it came to art, she let herself get carried away. She let her feelings wash over her and reveled in them. Work could come later. To her, enthusiasm was a virtue and life was meant to be participated in.

She was generous, always going the extra mile. When my family went to see plays, some of her students would come too, and she would pay extra so they could sit with us instead of in the cheapest seats in the back. She laughed louder than anyone else. I remember lying on the living room floor beside her, both of us laughing so hard our stomachs hurt after my mother tripped in the kitchen and dropped a casserole dish that shattered across the floor.

She taught me most of what I know. Nothing was spared from her questions; she was relentlessly curious. She taught me to ask challenging, out-of-the-box questions, to think, see, and assess, and even to look pretty and innocent in order to get away with mischief.

My grandmother always showed up, even when it meant working late into the night afterward. She pushed me, challenged me, and encouraged me to be kinder, see further, listen closer, work harder, stand taller, and do better. She always had complete faith in me. I try to be more like her every day.

Susan Sontag

She is one of the most important thinkers of recent history. Her writing on art, culture, and reality has shaped the way I see the world around me. Against Interpretation was a revelation. More recently, On Women was brilliant. She was a humanitarian. She worked "by obsession," and said about writing, "It's too serious to be sentimental," and that's always felt so profound.

Her work continually returns to questions of what matters and what does not, what is art and what is not, and what experience becomes without commentary. Her way of thinking about art, the psyche, and culture – her ability to step back and ask what things really are beneath artificiality and inherited assumptions – has shaped how I approach and engage with the arts. I don't always agree with her, but disagreement is not the point. Her thought insists on a step back from interpretation, a refusal of comfort, a demand to see.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Not only was she an excellent jurist, judicial strategist, and rhetorician, but she was also a tireless champion of women's rights. When she dissented, she was sharp and concise, making her disagreement clear while remaining respectful. What she deserves more recognition for among the general public is her mastery of civil procedure. In the fight for equal rights, she endured harassment and unfair criticism, handling it with remarkable dignity and composure. She was the bigger person. And she loved opera!

Two of my professors