Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I am Dr. Maxine Levin Montgomery, Professor of English at Florida State University. I am a product of the South, born and raised in the South and Central Florida. I credit that space with nurturing my love for learning. My father and my mother felt as though there was nothing that we could not achieve, that our world need not be circumscribed by that segregated environment that we could dream big dreams and work hard to achieve those goals. One of the things that inspires me has to do with watching my daughter who was in the Master's Program in English at Florida State University, and seeing the spark of enthusiasm in her eyes as she discovers texts that I have taught that I have read for years, and the ways in which her discovery of those texts inspires her to be the best that she can be and in terms of her being able to find her place or identity and her voice. There is something about the humanities that hold the potential or the power to make us more humane. When you take a look at the news, national news, international news, there is something missing in terms of the larger discourses, political discourses that we're hearing, that the humanities have the power to address. I am Dr. Montgomery English Professor at Florida State University. I teach courses in African American literary and cultural studies. You're listening to voices that inspire.