Gabrielle Civil
Associate professor of English
St. Kate’s connection: Associate professor of English; affiliated faculty, women’s studies and critical studies of race and ethnicity; faculty mentor for St. Kate’s Poetry Circle
Most notable accomplishment: Gabrielle received a Fulbright–Garcia Robles Fellowship grant to support her original research project, “In and Out of Place: Making Black Feminist Performance Art in Mexico.”
Why poetry matters: “Sensuous, cerebral, artful and elaborate, poetry is the anti-sound bite. More than maintaining the status quo, it pushes us to listen, speak, think and see in new ways. Even more, to paraphrase black feminist poet Audre Lorde, ‘it is the quality of light by which we see ourselves.’”
Favorite activities: “Reading, writing and talking about poems, making and seeing art, laughing with friends, traveling the world and buying shoes.”
Favorite St. Kate’s memory: “Watching the indefatigable leadership council of the St. Kate’s Poetry Circle win an Abigail Quigley McCarthy Student Leadership Award. The passion and commitment of these students to poetry and community certainly made me proud.”
Education: A.B., comparative literature, creative writing (poetry) and French, University of Michigan; M.A., Ph.D., comparative literature, New York University.
St. Kate’s Close-Up
