Associate Professor of Art, Rollins College

>> My name is Rachel Simmons. I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History here at Rollins College. We're a combined department. So we offer a major in studio art and also a major in art history. So majors in studio art study the practice of making art and becoming an artist. So they'll study foundations. 2D foundations. 3D foundations. Some basic core courses. And then they'll choose areas that they're most interested in. Like sculpture. Printmaking. Photography. Graphic design. Painting. And in our department you can also study art history, which is actually looking at the history of art throughout time. So you may be interested in ancient art and architecture. You may be interested in Medieval art. Renaissance. Contemporary. And modern art. So in academia there are different ranks. And when you begin teaching in academia, you begin as an assistant professor. You're an assistant professor for roughly six years. And then you go through the tenure process. Where you are promoted and given tenure at your institution. Once you're promoted, you move up to the rank of Associate Professor. And then another six years you can apply to become a full professor. At which point your title is simply Professor of Art. Professor Rachel Simmons. Teaching college is interesting because you have a certain level of autonomy in your work. You design your own courses. You teach, you know, you're sort of in charge of the instruction of your courses. You teach what needs to be taught within your department. But sometimes you can create an elective, you know, that's completely your own creation. That no one on your, else on your campus can teach. And so you have these unique sort of roles that you fill. On the other hand, you know, you are doing everything you do to complete the mission of the college. And so you're teaching this small piece of the curriculum. But you're adding to the entire experience that a student has at your institution. So my day revolves around prepping for class. And for me, because I teach studio art, that might mean getting plates and ink and brayers out to show someone how to do a printmaking technique. It could require that I prep handouts. Things that I need to give students information. All of my courses are online. So it could mean that I need to update the blog. Or update the website somehow. And that all happens before class starts. And then my classes are between, usually about two hours long, if it's a studio course. And that meets twice a week. So then, of course, I'm in class. And once my class ends, I'm usually meeting with students. Helping them with their projects. Meeting with other faculty that maybe I have committee work or governance work with. All kinds of appointments sort of fill the rest of my day. And my day doesn't end there. At home I might be doing grading. Prepping for the next day of courses. I'm about to lead a study abroad trip. So I have a lot of correspondence and organization to do throughout the year to make that trip happen. And all kinds of other things that fill your time. So we're off in the summers. But we're researching. We're doing our work. We are required to publish and exhibit work on a regular basis. So although many of us don't teach in the summer, we're usually using the summers to do that as well.