- Santa Cruz, California, United States
Angelica Walker
University of California, Santa Cruz, Literature, Undergraduate
“When asked what motivated him to pursue a career in academia and what influenced his interest in literature, Rob Wilson says, “from early high school I felt I had an aptitude for poetry and understanding how poetic language, poetic form,... more
“When asked what motivated him to pursue a career in academia and what influenced his interest in literature, Rob Wilson says, “from early high school I felt I had an aptitude for poetry and understanding how poetic language, poetic form, and poets worked...and when I got interested in something— like poets such as Dylan Thomas or Bob Dylan or Wallace Stevens—if I didn’t understand something, I wanted to find out more about it so I would read critical approaches to them or biographies... I spent time in the library, so I was definitely interested in it and I felt I had an aptitude—like I get it, you know?” After completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut, Wilson attended Boston University for a short time before being admitted to UC Berkeley as an out of state student in English. It was at UC Berkeley that he made the acquaintance of inspirational teachers who acknowledged his interests and encouraged him to pursue a PhD. Of his time at Berkeley, Wilson says, “I saw a profession that really looked like I could do this, I want to do this...I got in to UC Berkeley and so I stuck with it...and it was a place I could channel philosophical theological interests through literature—so it kind of answered some inner needs, and if I got a job I would have something pragmatic to make a living by.”
Rob Wilson did get a job teaching literature and writing, from composition to creative writing, and for some years taught at the University of Hawaii. Wilson did get a job, and for some years taught at the University of Hawaii. It was at his daughter’s graduation from UCSC that Wilson made connections with faculty from the literature department. In 2000, he began teaching at UCSC. It was his move back to California that reignited his interest in Beat literature, an interest he feels may not have been explored had he remained in Hawaii. Of his transition back to California and his years of being here since spring of 2001, Wilson says, “All of this interest in Beat and San Francisco I wouldn’t have developed in Hawaii. I mean, I taught Dharma Bums over and over among other stuff, but I just had to be here to reconnect to San Francisco and the West Coast and the Beat tradition as it built up here and got transformed—and I kind of stay in touch with Bay Area writers. So it’s opened up my world in terms of what I had ties to in the 1970s, but then I took it to a higher level.” “
Rob Wilson did get a job teaching literature and writing, from composition to creative writing, and for some years taught at the University of Hawaii. Wilson did get a job, and for some years taught at the University of Hawaii. It was at his daughter’s graduation from UCSC that Wilson made connections with faculty from the literature department. In 2000, he began teaching at UCSC. It was his move back to California that reignited his interest in Beat literature, an interest he feels may not have been explored had he remained in Hawaii. Of his transition back to California and his years of being here since spring of 2001, Wilson says, “All of this interest in Beat and San Francisco I wouldn’t have developed in Hawaii. I mean, I taught Dharma Bums over and over among other stuff, but I just had to be here to reconnect to San Francisco and the West Coast and the Beat tradition as it built up here and got transformed—and I kind of stay in touch with Bay Area writers. So it’s opened up my world in terms of what I had ties to in the 1970s, but then I took it to a higher level.” “
Research Interests: American Literature, Religion, Cultural History, American Studies, Comparative Literature, and 8 moreGlobalization, Literature, Critical Pedagogy, Poetry, Beat Studies, Borderlands Studies, Cultural Studies and Literatures, and Multilingual Studies, Identity Studies, Border identities, hybridity, multilingualism, poetry, bilingual poetry, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, globalization studies, third culture kids(Globalization, Literature, Critical Pedagogy, Poetry, Beat Studies, Borderlands Studies, Cultural Studies and Literatures, and Multilingual Studies, Identity Studies, Border identities, hybridity, multilingualism, poetry, bilingual poetry, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, globalization studies, third culture kids)
(Globalization, Literature, Critical Pedagogy, Poetry, Beat Studies, Borderlands Studies, Cultural Studies and Literatures, and Multilingual Studies, Identity Studies, Border identities, hybridity, multilingualism, poetry, bilingual poetry, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, globalization studies, third culture kids)