“When you love something, like literature and words,it’s natural to want to share it with others.”--Lois Rubin, associate professor of English,Penn State New Kensington
UPPER BURRELL, Pa. -- Ever since she was a child, Lois Rubin, associate professor of English at Penn State New Kensington, found literature to be a great escape and a great pleasure. She loved reading and words, and wanted to share her passion with others. The seed of her vocation as an educator was planted in the 1950s, and, nourished by generations of students in the 80s, 90s and 2000s
“As a small child, I loved to play school, with myself as the teacher," Rubin said. “When you love something, like literature and words, it’s natural to want to share it with others. It’s also a challenge to come up with questions and activities that enable students to discover the artfulness of a written piece and its meaning. When a lesson succeeds, it’s very satisfying.”
After 30 years of using the English language to stimulate students’ critical thinking and unleash their creative instincts, Rubin retired in May after the spring 2015 semester. She was honored May 4 at a retirement luncheon, where colleagues, friends and former students expressed appreciation and gratitude for her service to the campus and community.
"Lois has had a rich and rewarding professional life while at the New Kensington campus, and she has been my colleague in literary and feminist studies in addition to her role as a faculty member at our campus,” said Andrea Adolph, director of academic affairs. “I will miss her, but I am looking forward to seeing the results of her ongoing work on her book manuscript, and I know that she will continue to work with students, since teaching is a true love for Lois. She will be an example of how life doesn't end at retirement."
After earning a doctorate, Rubin joined the campus faculty in 1984. She taught many courses, including composition, business writing and women's literature. It was her literature courses that allowed students to use their imaginations and bring their own experiences to a story. Through reading, they could encounter other people, cultures and surroundings and widen their horizons.
“I loved my lit courses because of the great literature that I could choose from, stories and novels written by international writers and women writers,” Rubin said. “This literature was not as well known to my students as traditional American literature, so it is fresh and opens new worlds to them. I loved my composition courses when students came up with insightful ideas in their essays, and their classmates were able to identify and appreciate the strengths in each other’s papers.”
Students were always at the forefront of Rubin’s pedagogy, and retirement provided an opportunity for reflection of her career at the campus. Rubin won’t miss commenting on hundreds of student papers a year and receiving emails asking for extensions of deadlines and justifying absences. But she will miss special moments in the classroom -- assignments stimulating discussions about society and relationships; students critiquing each other’s work and offering suggestions that are right on the mark; and students presenting creative solutions or arguments that neither Rubin nor the class had considered.
“No doubt that teaching is challenging, taxing, and anxiety producing,” Rubin said. “But at the same time it offers moments that are so satisfying that I doubt if anything else I do will ever match it.”
ColleaguesWhile educating students fulfilled her lifelong passion, the campus provided Rubin a friendly and supportive workplace. She noted that faculty and staff at the campus made her professional life more enjoyable.
“Everyone at the campus was so nice to work with, so cooperative and knowledgeable, that one can keep developing, learning from colleagues and trying out new things,” Rubin said. “The interactions of faculty are not competitive but are collegial. If you need help from a colleague with expertise, you can get it. Where else would the chancellor (Kevin Snider) come to my classroom four times in a semester to help students design research projects? And where else could I get good wishes every morning from people like Ruth Herstek and Susan Dale (administrative support assistants in the Academic Affairs office), plus positive comments about a project I was working and on the outfit I was wearing? This was definitely a great place to work.”Other ActivitiesIn addition to teaching courses, Rubin coordinated the annual Holocaust, Remembrance program that educates students and the community about the atrocities of the Holocaust. Since 1992, Rubin brought 21 Holocaust survivors to the New Kensington campus during April, the month of Holocaust Remembrance Day, to speak to students and the community. According to Rubin, the recollections by speakers, such as Shulamit Bastacky and Sam Weinreb, remind the world of the lesson of respecting the humanity of those who are different. The event was open to the public and routinely drew a receptive audience.
"I hope to continue the program because I think we still need to be mindful of the terrible consequences of hatred and prejudice," Rubin said. "Time is passing, and members of the World War II generation are aging. In a few years, the survivors of the Holocaust will not be around to tell us their stories in person."
Rubin was also dedicated to Writing Across the Curriculum, a program which encourages instructors in all disciplines to use writing in their courses. She conducted workshops in the 1980s when the program was initiated and coordinated a workshop in 2013 for campus and Westmoreland County Community College faculty.
During her tenure, Rubin accumulated several awards and honors, including two research sabbaticals and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. In 2003, she was cited for distinguished teaching and earned the Excellence in Teaching award.
Research interestsRubin received her doctorate, as well as her master’s and bachelor’s degrees, from Carnegie-Mellon University. In her dissertation and early research, she investigated students’ writing, discussion and critiquing processes, and published articles on composition research and pedagogy.
As her scholarship evolved, she focused on women writers, in particular, Jewish women writers. Rubin explored the creative development and conflicting identities of characters in the novels of the writers, which culminated with the editing of a collection of essays, “Connections and Collisions: Identities in Contemporary Jewish American Women’s Writing,” published in 2005 by the University of Delaware Press.
The anthology, which featured essays written by Rubin and other university professors, reflects the tremendous output of writing by Jewish women, stimulated by the second wave of the women's movement in the 1970s. According to Rubin, the evolution of Jewish female writers parallels the rise of African-American female writers, such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and other ethnic writers. As ethnic consciousness became valued, both African-American and Jewish-American women felt empowered to write about their identities and experiences.
Throughout her academic career, Rubin wrote extensively on female writers, and her work was published as articles and book chapters.
Philanthropic activitiesIn addition to helping students to learn, Rubin also helped students to finance their educations though her family’s charitable organization, the Hyman Family Foundation, which was founded in 1957 by her grandfather Samuel Hyman. The Hyman endowment at the campus provides approximately $4,500 each year in scholarships for campus students who are chosen on the basis of academic promise, leadership qualities, community service and financial need. Since its inception, the endowment has funded scholarships for nearly 200 students.
The Hyman Family Foundation was named Penn State New Kensington's "Corporate/Foundation Partner of the Year" in 2011 for its support of the University and the campus during the past three decades. As a trustee of the foundation, Rubin accepted the award from Chancellor Kevin Snider on behalf of the foundation.
Final thoughts“I’m pleased that I spent the main part of my professional life, 30 years, at Penn State New Kensington, pursuing a challenging but satisfying profession in the company of like-minded people,” Rubin said. “Not everyone can say that about her working life. And while I will be glad to be free of some of the burdens of teaching, I will miss the satisfaction and collegiality that go with it.”
Rubin resides in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh with her husband Ira. They raised two children, Beth and Joel, and are the proud grandparents of five grandchildren, ages 4 to 16.
Retirement is opening new doors for Rubin. She is working on a new book,
“Writing the Life Cycle: Poetry of Maxine Kumin, Linda Pastan and Alicia Ostriker,” which will be published by McFarland Publishers.
“People saying ‘congratulations on your retirement’ is not really the right sentiment,” Rubin said. “Maybe ‘best wishes’ or ‘good luck’ is the more appropriate term for a person like me, who is leaving something fulfilling and starting in a new direction.”