Susan Preciso, 2022-01-07

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Staff Only

Susan Preciso Oral History Interview Transcript

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Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Evergreen Oral History Project collection contains interviews with more than one hundred retired Evergreen faculty, administrators and staff. These conversations were conducted mostly by current and emeritus faculty. From the initial year devoted to designing the College (1970-71) to the present, Evergreen has been a highly innovative academic institution, committed to pedagogy that strongly supports students’ learning. The project’s purpose has been to document a very wide range of experiences and points of view of longtime members of this community. Faculty narrators recall how they developed their practices of team-teaching, interdisciplinary studies, communities of inquiry, and other distinctive features of the curriculum. Nearly all narrators tell stories about their biographical backgrounds, how being at Evergreen affected them, and how their work contributed to students’ education. Narrators also reflect on how they and Evergreen responded to challenges and changes of politics and culture, including issues of class, gender and race, over the College’s first half century.

The Evergreen Oral History Project began in 2016. As of May 2024, 104 retirees had been interviewed by twenty-eight interviewers. Interviewers have chosen whom they wish to interview, which imbues many of these discussions with the tenor of dialogues between friends. Rather than respond to a preset list of questions, narrators discussed whatever was most memorable and interesting to them.

Special thanks go to transcriber Penny Miller, who made draft transcripts of almost all of the recorded interviews; Amanda Walker and Abby Kelso, Vice-Presidents for Advancement, who sponsored and found funding for the project; Pat Barte and Ray Janssen-Timmen, for administrative support; John Sheehy, director of Reed College’s oral history project, for guidance launching ours; Susan Fiksdal, Anthony Zaragoza, Barbara Smith, Nancy Taylor and Nancy Koppelman, each of whom interviewed many retirees; Liza Harrell-Edge and Sadie Aymond, for accessioning and managing the collection in the Library Archives; and the anonymous donor whose generosity made the project possible. Sam Schrager has been director of the project.

Dates

Creation: 2022-01-07

Biographical / Historical

Susan Preciso began teaching at The Evergreen State College in 1993. She received her BA and her MA in English from Portland State University in 1986 and 1988. Preciso’s emphasis at Evergreen was English Literature.

Name: Susan Preciso

Date of Birth: August 2, 1949

Place of Birth: Portland, Oregon

Family Heritage: Swedish/Norwegian/Czechoslovakian - all grandparents immigrants

Parents: Chester Lageson, Elizabeth Swiberg Lageson

Spouse(s)/Partner(s): Frank Preciso - Corporate VP Production

Children: - Dominic Preciso (Printer) - Rachel Preciso (Teacher) - Robin Preciso (Teacher)

Any family members attended Evergreen? - Robin Preciso - Robin transferred as a junior and took two year-long programs - one on the West with Sam Schrager and Pete Sinclair; one on WWII with Dave Hitchens and Gil Salcedo

Schools attended: - Portland State University, 1982-1988; English Literature, B.A. & M.A.

Work history (a chronology): - Portland State University - Pierce College - Evergreen, 1992-2019

Teaching at Evergreen: - "Shaping a Nation" - w/ John McCann (1993-94) - "Paradigm of Progress" - w/ Nancy Taylor and Janet Ott (1994-95) - "Images and Landscapes" - w/ Phyllis Wong (1995-96) - "From Adam and Eve to Thelma and Louise" - w/ Evonne Hedgepeth (1996-97) - "The Search for a Useable Past" - w/ Joli Sandoz (1997-98) - "Dangerous Bliss: The Romantic, the Gothic, and the American Dream" - w/ Marla Elliot (1998-99) - "North and South" - w/ Helena Meyer-Knapp (1999) - "Victoria Still Rules" - w/ John McCann (1999-2000) - "Culture as History" - w/ Allen Mauney (2000-2001) - "American Ways of Seeing" - w/ Ann Storey (2001) - "American Renaissance and American Ways of Seeing the Fifties" - w/ Marla Elliot (2002) - "Global Cities" - w/ Helena Meyer-Knapp (2003) - "The Age of Irony" - w/ Sarah Ryan (2006-07) - w/ John Baldridge & Sarah Ryan (2010-11) - w/ John Baldridge (2014-15) - w/ Sarah Ryan (2018-19) - "American Literature of the 1850s" (2008) - "The Fifties: Fab and Fraught" - w/ Marla Elliot (2008) - "Work and the Human Condition" - w/ Stephen Beck (2008-09, 2012-13, 2016-17) - "The Art of Adaptation" - w/ Mark Harrison (2009-10) - "The Victorian World" - w/ Tom Rainey (2011-12) - "I Hear America Singing" - w/ Marla Elliot (2012) - "Forbidden Knowledge" - w/ Mark Harrison (2013, 2016) - "Culture as History" - w/ Mark Harrison (2013-14, 2017-18, 2021,22 (Post Retirement Contract)) - "Monsters" - w/ Stephen Blakeslee and Mark Harrison (2019) - "Senior Seminar" - w/ Giles Malnarich (2006-2009)

Governance/service at Evergreen: - Served on the Agenda Committee at least three terms - Served on many hiring committee

Some of your accomplishments at Evergreen: - I helped to build a robost curriculum for working adult students who wanted a real Evergreen education. I have some real concerns about the move to providing "certificates" for these students, rather than focusing on rich liberal arts programs. - I also planned and organized a number of summer institutes, especially focusing on educating non-traditional students. The best was one Sarah Ryan and I planned - titled "Night School." We also organized a rich week focused on teaching history - the David Hitchins History Institute.

Other interests/affiliations: - I am an active member of a very progressive Catholic parish, St. Leo in Tacoma, where I serve on the Social Justice Commission and have served on the pastoral council. My plan in retirement was to travel more extensively; however, this was drastically curtailed by the Covid 19 pandemic. I had also planned to volunteer at the Tacoma Art Museum and the Washington State Historical Society Museum and Research Center. - I am also interested in organizing pop-up book groups for retired Evergreen faculty and staff. We've met twice and had rich discussions, but hope to continue on a more regular basis.