Interview with Dr. Shane Gomes, GSA Adviser and D&D master
By Brianna McGuire
Social Media Intern
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| Dr. Shane Gomes |
Dr. Shane
Gomes, starting his teaching career here at Tennessee State University in 2020.
Since then, he has accomplished much in Languages, Literature, and Philosophy. Today, he kicks of a new Dungeon and Dragons
Club on Nov 4th. He is also the new faculty
for the Gender Sexuality Alliance Club, where he hopes to create the safe space
LGBTQ+ students that he wished he had for himself while he was in college. He
teaches numerous classes for LLP, including English 1010 and 1020, World Literature
(2320), Technical Report Writing, and most recently, a special topic course
that focuses on tragedy in popular culture literature.
Dr. Gomes’ colorful
office is filled with the comics he read as a kid. He says his father had every
Marvel comic from 1956 to 1985. Nerdy stuff just makes him happy. Gomes says
that he hopes to convey to students that everything they do carries political
weight and it is impacting us based on our race, class, gender, ethnicity, etc.
We need to learn how people are using that against us and to take control of
our communication by making sure that we are getting our own thoughts out there
instead of others.
My interview
with him below provides insights on his experiences with LLP, GSA, Comics, and so much more!
Tell me about yourself.
I am originally
from Hawaii, born in Honolulu. I was homeschooled for most of my life and then
I attended University of Northern Colorado for some years and then returned
back home and graduated with my Bachelor’s in Psychology and a minor in English
from University of Hawaii. I then went back to University of Northern Colorado
for my masters and then moved to North Dakota to receive my doctoral degree from
North Dakota State.
What was life
like after college?
During the
depths of recession, I was able to find a job that was related to my psychology
degree working as an addiction counselor and I also ran drug testing for a
small non-profit. There were a lot of issues that blocked me from actually helping
people, so I decided to go back to school to get my master’s degree studying
English.
What made you want
to leave the psychology field and gravitate towards English for your masters?
During my time
in undergrad, I really wanted to study English or film but I decided to study
mainly psychology because I bought into the idea that you may need to go into a
field that will guarantee you a job after graduating from college. I didn’t even
listen to my English professors that told me that English majors could get jobs
all over the place. After going into the psychology field, I realized that it was
not something that I genuinely wanted to do and decided to go into the English
track. And once I started teaching, I was like yeah this is something that I
want to do like forever. I don’t want to do anything else.
What is your experience
now working as a professor at Tennessee State?
I really enjoy it
here, I am also the head advisor for the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA)
which is something that I really wanted to be a part of and last semester I
suggested a tabletop gaming club and I was supported and funded for it. The Dungeons and Dragons club should be
meeting very soon, so I am very excited for that. This is a place where people
actually listen to what I have to say and take it very seriously and that has
not been the case at other universities.
Can you tell me
more about the special topics course?
Yes! We are
focusing on some of the classic tragedies and bringing in some of the modern
interpretation of the genre, like we spoke of Black Panther. We are focusing on
tragedy and what it does politically and the people in power. The students seem
very engaged and interested!
Why do you hope
to accomplish being the head advisor for Gender Sexuality Alliance?
The main goal is
to promote inclusiveness on campus for members of the LGTBQ community and make it
a safe environment for them. One thing that we are doing is including pride training
for faculty and staff for them to create an accepting classroom for queer
students. More than importantly, I would like to make it an organization that I
would have felt comfortable coming out of when I was an undergrad.
What is something
that would like to tell English majors/minors that you wish you could have told
yourself during undergrad?
The skills that
you can learn in this field is transferable to any profession. Good communication
skills, writing skills, analysis and critical thinking skills is our bread and
butter, it is our thing. These skills can help you from the time you put in
your application for a job, interviewing for a job, and implementing the job once
you get it. You all should be studying something that you are passionate about,
because when you are passionate about it there is a much better chance of
succeeding at it.
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