English professor Marci Carrasquillo landed in the Midwest after living on both coasts. She came to Simpson in 2007 after teaching at the University of Oregon for six years while pursuing her doctorate degree. She fulfilled her undergraduate at the University of Connecticut.

“I chose to come to Simpson because I was really excited about having the opportunity to contribute to the college’s efforts to make the campus community and course offerings more diverse,” she said. “I also thought that I would prefer to focus on teaching,” she said. “At a small liberal arts institution, I can do that.”

Carrasquillo is a 2005 recipient of a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and is currently at work revising her dissertation, “‘The Perfect Freedom:” Travel and Mobility in Contemporary Ethnic American Literature.” She is turning her dissertation into a book that explores the ways Latino novelists use the figure of the road and, more broadly, of the mythic American frontier, to celebrate and challenge the assumptions about America and American individuals that underlie the road trip.

When Carrasquillo isn’t reading, she enjoys cooking, playing guitar, bowling on the Wii and also likes attending rock and roll concerts.

Carrasquillo admits to being a bit of a “germaphob,” so the ‘would you rather?’ question this week was particularly unnerving for her.