Victoria McKenzie/ Winonan

On top of teaching students, grading papers, planning lessons and writing tests, some Winona State University professors spend time researching and writing scholarly works on their fields of study.

Susan Jacobsen, the president of Winona State’s English Honors Society, Sigma Tau Delta, formulated a plan to give more students “a great opportunity to hear about the research that English department faculty conduct.”

With the help of Amy Pearson, Sigma Tau Delta’s graduate chair, Jacobsen planned a Scholar Series. The series will host a different speaker each month, with a question and answer session at the end of each presentation.

“The event promotes Sigma Tau Delta’s mission to foster an appreciation for literature, language and writing,” Jacobsen said. “It also provides an opportunity for academic conversation outside of the classroom among students and English department faculty.”

The first event occurred on Wednesday, March 25, when Elizabeth Zold spoke about her research on traveling mothers in eighteenth-century England.  Her study focuses on travelogues, which she described as “narratives of exploration and adventure.”

Zold said mainly wealthy men wrote travelogues in the eighteenth century, because few women received the opportunity to travel due to motherhood, and those who did choose to travel were labeled as bad mothers.

“What it meant to be a bad mother became public concern,” said Zold.

Zold examined some of the few travelogues written by women and analyzed their use of motherhood as a justification for publishing their travel narratives.

Zold explained that the use of familial imagery and metaphors, as well as continual referrals to how much the women missed their children, protected them against claims that they were neglectful mothers.

According to Zold, the women claimed motherhood gave them helpful perspectives when traveling that they felt they should share with the world.  These women’s roles as mothers allowed them to “enter into the public intellectual discourse” through their travelogues.

In her second year at Winona State, Zold is in the process of writing an article on the material she covered in her presentation at the scholar series. In the future, Zold intends to do further research and writing on the subject.

Zold started the chapter of Sigma Tau Delta at Winona State and volunteered to speak for the series.

“Development of this series is still in the nascent stages. The speakers are chosen somewhat informally,” Jacobson said. “[Speakers] showcase a variety of different research from the field of English, including literature, writing (creative and academic), linguistics and more.”

While tackling a double major in legal studies and English literature and language, Jacobsen has been brainstorming events for Winona State’s chapter.

Jacobsen said she hopes “the presentations will broaden students’ horizons and introduce them to new and exciting aspects of the field.”