US professor Eve Preus interviews on why she teaches in Canada
By Jessica Berget, Editor-in-Chief
Douglas College offers a representation of many different cultures and countries. One of the countries we often forget about is the one just across the border: America. And to the surprise of some students, we have plenty of US citizens represented in our faculty within the college.
There are many possible reasons for a US teacher come to Canada. Better pay, more job demand, or even just a change of scenery are a few hypotheticals. However, people also come to teach here for other personal reasons.
To give some insight on this topic, we asked English and Poetry department faculty Eve Preus on her reasons for moving to the great white north, and how she came to be in Canada in the first place.
“I came to Canada in 2006 for my master’s degree at UBC in the department of English Language and Literatures,” she said in an interview with the Other Press. “It was definitely a choice [for] a few main reasons. UBC’s English department is one of the few North American departments where you can specialize in language, as opposed to just literature. As a poet, I was interested in close-reading language itself, so this degree allowed me to take really interesting courses like pragmatic linguistics and cognitive poetics. These interests eventually led me to studying Shakespeare more rigorously, and I ended up pursuing a PhD in early modern theatre.”
Besides schooling and degree reasons, Preus also cited the political climate of her home country and proximity to family to making the decision to move to Canada to teach.
“I wanted to get out of the states for a bit. I was unhappy with my country politically and wanted to live elsewhere. I’d lived in the UK for a few months during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was alarmed upon my return at the increasing jingoism of America. I didn’t want to be an “ugly American,” and I felt that I needed to leave to get some perspective. My family all lives near Seattle, so Vancouver felt like a good spot to move to but still feel close to them.”
She also discusses more personal reasons for her decision to come up North.
“I remember always looking up to Canada, to be honest. I’d
visited Victoria when I was 10 on a family vacation, and it all felt vaguely
magical. I’m not sure why. Maybe my mother’s love of high tea and British
masterpiece theatre made Canada feel like it was closer to her (and thus to me)
than the states. Vancouver just felt like a good fit. [Also] beaches. I love
the beaches in this city!”
There
are many different reasons people come to Canada, but for this professor the
reasons are personal and educational.
