“For me my office is an extension of my teaching,” says Gwenyth Jackaway, Associate Chair of the Communication and Media Studies program and Associate Professor at Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC).  While placing yourself in Prof. Jackway’s office, you are easily inspired by different quotes sticking on her door, her desk and even her mug. In today’s Office Hours, Prof. Jackaway tells us about her interpretation of these quotes and a story of her son, Dylan.

Quotes

“I have quotes all over the place.  I have been cumulating these for years because I think well- chosen quotes can really get you thinking. When students come over I rarely bring them up, but I think they will notice them and start thinking.”

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” –Anonymous

“This is one of my favorite quotes.  Fear always holds us back in all kinds of ways in our life.  Whether it is what major you are picking, what partner you are picking or what career you are picking, it is not good to let the fear hold you back.  On my personal journey I found when I overcome the fear and try something new, meet someone new or have some new ideas, my life gets bigger.  When you feel fear, it is always a sign that there are some lessons there.”

Clothing

“Teaching is a performance art.  I want to look nice when students are looking at me.  We signal to each other in many different ways.”

Poster of Dylan

“This is my son, Dylan, who was diagnosed with autism.  The kind of autism he has leads to a social communication disorder.  They are making brilliant mathematics, engineering, but they do not know how to make friends.  When he was three years old, they asked me if they could use his pictures as the fundraising poster.  I said yes and then these posters were all over the city–all big in Time Square, taxis and buses.  Though Dylan did not understand it was a big deal to have his pictures all over the city, it was a big deal to me.  When you have a kid who has been diagnosed by autism, it can be scary and painful.  This helped me to make peace with the reality that I have a child who is different, and help me not to keep it a secret and be ashamed of it.  We all have differences.   Now he is 10 and he is doing very well, but when he was three it was not so clear that he would do this well.  And I also never wanted him not to be ashamed of it.  He knows that he has a different kind of brain and it will actually make him very talented in math and science.”

Photo wall

“These are different pictures of Dylan.  People do not use prints as much as they used to.  Recently I am going to make more prints and bring them in.”

The book I read recently

“I am teaching a class on communication and philosophy, so recently I have been reading The Philosophy Book.  I teach a variety of classes that all deal with media and society as I studied communication from a social science perspective.”

Lamp

“I can not stand florescent light because anybody looks horrible in florescent light. That is why I have this lamp here.  Fortunately, I have all the space and the window.”

Albums

“Those are some old albums of mine.  I like electronic dance music like house music.”

Yin Yang symbol:

 “I am very interested in the Yin Yang symbol.  I think it has much to teach us.  I always end up teaching about it in my class as a conclusion.  We have a lot to learn from the East.  Because in Western thinking we tend to say one and the other, good or evil, right or wrong and we need both half so whatever that is.  It is not one side has the answer and the other side is completely wrong.”