Grobman Unites Cultures, Teaching, and Research
By: Lisa R. Weidman
At first glance, Dr. Laurie Grobman’s research seems to branch off in many different directions. However, upon closer inspection, one can see that all her work is driven by the common principles of multiculturalism and social justice; the effect that writing as it is both produced and consumed can accomplish toward these ends; and the way her teaching can bring students directly into these issues themselves–through undergraduate research and service-learning/community-based research.
In her position as Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Penn State Berks, Grobman wears many hats at one time, and those hats change at a moment’s notice. So she lets her work with students drive her research agenda without losing sight of those guiding principles. One might say that she has charted her own path, and rather than one specialization, she has many.
Driven by the reciprocal relationship of teaching and research, Grobman strives to advance disciplinary and educational knowledge. These various threads show up in a significant record of research accomplishments.
First, they are evident in her work on multiethnic literature and multicultural education. In fact, Grobman has garnered a national reputation for her work in multiculturalism.
Her first book, Teaching at the Crossroads: Cultures and Critical Perspectives in Literature by Women of Color (2001), offers a transformative model for teaching literature by women of color.
Her 2006 book, Multicultural Hybridity: Transforming American Literary Scholarship and Pedagogy, examines and addresses the difference paradox in multicultural literary studies: how to acknowledge difference in multicultural literature, yet treat all texts equally as part of the broader category of American literature.
More recently, Grobman’s work on cross-racial texts further complicates race as a remarkably complex and multilayered issue. Grobman, however, believes that even cross-racial writing that employs race and/or racial stereotypes as plot device or caricature (wittingly or unwittingly) can provide opportunities for productive cultural exchange.
Connecting art and life, Grobman addresses cross-racial issues in real-world communities and the inevitable complexities through both service-learning and community-based research, and she has published widely in these areas. She integrates public service with scholarly endeavors in an attempt to advance multiculturalism and challenge students’ understandings of difference, and to contribute to addressing short- and long-term community needs.
In addition to her research, Grobman also coordinated the publication of Woven with Words: A Collection of African American History in Berks County, Pennsylvania, a history book that describes the rich and previously untold history of African Americans in Berks County from the county’s eighteenth-century to present day. Woven with Words was written primarily by Penn State Berks students and co-edited by Grobman and Dr. Gary Kunkelman, Senior Lecturer in Professional Writing, at the request of the NAACP-Reading Branch, which approached the college after identifying the need to document the area’s African American history.
Currently, Grobman is working with students and Centro Hispano Daniel Torres, Reading’s Hispanic Center, on a similar publication documenting local Latino history.
Jumah Taweh, one of the students working on the project, commented, “I think the whole experience has been enlightening and educational. It gave me a better appreciation for my West African heritage.”
As for her work in the area of undergraduate research, Grobman is co-founder, along with the late Dr. Candace Spigelman, of Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric, an international undergraduate research journal. Grobman continues to serve as editor-in-chief of the journal, which in its seventh year of publication and has garnered a great deal of attention.
A staunch advocate for undergraduate research, Grobman recently had an article on undergraduate research in the humanities published in Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly. She also co-edited, with Joyce Kinkead, Associate Vice President and Professor of English at Utah State University, a collection titled Undergraduate Research and English Studies that is forthcoming in 2010 from National Council of Teachers of English press.
It is obvious when Grobman talks about diversity and social justice that these are subjects about which she feels very passionate. You could say that Grobman’s career has come full circle from her days studying and then teaching sociology and criminology, both of which are directly related to social justice.
Grobman began her academic career earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in criminology, both from the University of Pennsylvania. She interned and volunteered in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office and was a teaching assistant in criminology at her alma mater. After one year as an intern with the Philadelphia Phillies and three years as the Director of Sales and Marketing with the Reading Phillies, Grobman decided to focus on academia and completed a master’s degree in English at Villanova University and a doctoral degree in English at Lehigh University.
She joined Penn State in 1998 and quickly rose to the rank of Professor. She was one of the original faculty members who developed the college’s Professional Writing baccalaureate degree program and served as co-coordinator with Spigelman. Grobman teaches courses in literature, writing, rhetoric, community-based research, and ethnic studies.
As a teacher, scholar, and global citizen, Grobman is deeply committed to a multicultural perspective that builds bridges and heals divisions but does not erase the differences that enrich us as a world community.