CHC Faculty Series: Kathleen Brown-Pérez
By Mahidhar Sai Lakkavaram
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Kathleen Brown-Pérez is no stranger around the Commonwealth Honors College. A senior lecturer II, Brown-Pérez is famous for her section of 'Ideas that Change the World,' a class required for all Honors students. Like with any celebrity, we sat down with her to learn more about her journey and teaching philosophy, and how she ended up at UMass!
How did you end up teaching here at CHC?
Well, it was an accident. I know we're all supposed to have five-year plans and ten-year plans, but I never planned to teach, ever.
My husband and I moved here from Phoenix so that he could get his Master's and PhD at UMass. I was going to Boston, practicing law, while he was here getting his degrees. Much to our surprise, on the day he defended his dissertation, they offered him a tenure track position in the psychology department. This never happens, like it just doesn't happen.
And so I thought, we need to figure out what to do with our lives, because I really don't like being a corporate lawyer—It's like working for Satan. A friend offered me a teaching position, just as an adjunct visiting at Hampshire College, and I loved it.
My first class was Federal Indian law. I taught at Hampshire for just about a year and then my husband and I started co-teaching a senior Honors Thesis course in the Honors College, and that was how I got introduced to the Honors College.
After many steps, I ended up being full time, so I've been here for 17 years. I still do law on the side, federal Indian law for my tribe when I need to, but other than that, I'm just here and I love it—it's like the best job ever.
What are some of the classes you teach?
I teach Ideas that Change the World and primarily, I teach that because I love teaching it…it's a great class, I helped develop it many years ago. I also teach a senior Honors Thesis seminar called "Conquest by Law: the Use of Law to Subjugate and Marginalize in the US".
I’m also teaching criminal law and justice this spring, and it's a very popular course. There aren't any other criminal law courses on campus. I also teach federal Indian law through the Legal Studies program; the actual title of the class is Legalization of the American Indian, which looks at the history of federal Indian policy.
What is your teaching approach or teaching philosophy?
One of the most important things to me is to not scare my students. Some professors come from a background of scaring people into learning, I think the brain is more open and you're able to understand things better when you're a little more relaxed.
Even though I have my strict roles, I'm not there to scare students. I'm there to show them that they are capable of learning paths, and to not just memorize things, because I don't think that serves much purpose. Instead, I want students to get little pieces of information that makes them think about things a little more deeply. I also think that it's important to teach something about writing. Instead of just saying “write a 20-page paper,” we can break it down into lots of little parts and show students how to find good sources.
Especially today, with the internet and social media, we get so much information. But when it comes to a situation where you really need to have your facts straight, there are very few sources you can rely on. And since we're often wondering what the truth is, whatever that may be, it's good to look at several sources and then make up your own mind.
"And that just makes me think of all the people I know who think they know everything. As soon as somebody starts thinking they know everything, I question everything, none of us ever truly know anything."
You get students looking to you for answers and I don't want to pretend I know something. I get questions in class and I will say, “you know, I don't know, but I'll look it up.”
What do you hope Honors students will take away from your classes?
I think critical thinking, honestly, is the best thing. To understand that even when somebody is trying to tell you that they have a monopoly on the truth, that they have the one right answer – that there's no way that's possible.
I want students to understand that we also don't know everything and let's not pretend we do. But if we can have a grasp of how to look up the most reliable answers, I think that's just gold. We have such a privilege here, to have access to scholarly journal articles which most students when they leave here won't have that access anymore. But when they are on the internet, hopefully after I've drilled it into their heads, they will understand whether they're looking at something that's good or bad, reliable or not. I want them to understand what's good information, what's bad, especially in this age of information overload. And it's not like we didn't have that good and bad information in the past, It's just so easy to access right now so being able to read through it is really important. So I think that's what I want them to take from that, and the fact that I'm the coolest teacher, I just can't tell them that.
How has your experience teaching in CHC shaped yourself as an educator?
In a funny way, with the exception of that little bit of time in Hampshire, this is my only real experience teaching. There's something about the CHC atmosphere that is just very friendly and welcoming. I'm grateful that the 12 faculty we have here, we don't compete with each other, we're all friends. And that doesn't happen in most departments, so I feel really fortunate.
"It's just given me an appreciation of working not just with great students who I adore, but also co-workers and colleagues that are just super supportive, who would do anything for you."
You know, I've had a couple health scares while I've been a teacher here. I had cancer at one point. And I had all these people saying, “Okay, I'll teach your class if you want me to.” I said no, and usually ended up missing one class, but everyone was just l so willing to step in for me and that just doesn't happen in a lot of places. So I'm really grateful to be here.
I love my job, I honestly do. And that's actually what I wish for all of the students here, that you end up in a job or career that you want to go to every day that makes you happy, because there is a choice. And, you know, I made maybe a little more money when I was going to Boston and working for Satan. But it was a position that had me working so many hours, it was crazy. I worked so much and made so much money, I didn't have time to spend the money, but the Honors College position has made me realize that money isn't the most important thing. And you know, I grew up in the 80s, where money is everything. And that was just wrong, it was a mistake. So I definitely got that from this experience.
Why do you teach?
One of the things I love about teaching is that I have such freedom in what I teach and what I include in the course, and that's why every ‘Ideas that Change the World’ is different, right? I love that freedom, because there are certain things about the world that have ended up being very important to me. And I want my students to know that. So I started including mass incarceration years ago when I first learned about it, I remembered the war on drugs, I was in high school from 1980 to 1983. And I just feel like students need to know certain things about their country and of some of the policies that are out there and pay attention to what's going on. This is our world, this is our government, and it does matter.
"We can't always change things, that's true, but we can at least know what's out there."
I also like the opportunity to do even if it's just a day or two of [American] Indians, one on one, you know, like, we're still out there, 100 tribes, my tribes in Wisconsin, and you get to share that with students.