Suzanne Cope, Assistant Professor

"I love to teach at Berklee, because my students are creative. I teach both LENG-111, Writing and Communication and LENG-201, Literature. I love that I can approach teaching both of these classes from a perspective that includes music and creativity as a common ground. I had Regie Gibson come in today. He's a poet, very much in the slam musical influence, who is influenced by both music and the classic literature canon. He was talking about philosophers that I haven't thought much about since I was an undergrad, and Beowulf, which I hadn't read in ages either, and relating them to our students' experiences. And I thought, 'This is the importance of a great undergraduate education.' You have this baseline of what people are talking about, what the canon is. You don't feel like you're out of the loop. While I tend to focus on more contemporary authors and artists in my classes, I completely appreciate the need to be aware of the long history of art and literature and find the ways to relate it to what the students are doing creatively today."

"Another goal of my teaching is to help students find their voices. One of the things I help them articulate is what they love about music, their own and others'; what they love about playing; what they love about who they are as a person. I think once you know yourself a bit better, you are better able to focus your efforts out there in the world."

"I like to bring creative writing into the class, especially in the context of craft—as an example of another creative endeavor that uses tools to create meaning in similar ways as playing or writing music. I'm in the dissertation phase of a Ph.D. program at Lesley now. The discipline is adult learning, but the focus is creative nonfiction pedagogy—so thinking about the craft of creative endeavors is something I am passionate about. I also write memoir and personal essays. I have a book that's going to be published at the beginning of 2013, called Locavore in the City, and I have recently been published in magazines and journals like Edible Boston, Edible Cape Cod, and New Plains Review. Lately I have been writing a lot about food and family and things like that. I am very passionate about the personal stories of the people behind local and sustainable food and food culture and I try to relate to others through my personal essay writing—my own creative endeavors. This is another way that I relate to my students, that I also consider myself an artist in this world, striving to continually refine my voice and make a difference."