English and creative writing faculty member Fiona Coll said "the most amazing job ad I had ever seen" drew her to Oswego, where she enjoys teaching at the intersection of literature and technology. Interviewed in early March, she discusses her love of Oswego students, literature and making sure knowledge is accessible. She coordinates Oswego's Faculty Accessibility Fellows program, which aims to ensure all learners have the best opportunity for education.

Q. What attracted you to SUNY Oswego?

What brought me to SUNY Oswego was the most amazing job ad I had ever seen. The job ad was for someone who was interested in the intersection of literature and technology, which happened to be something I thought I was the only one doing, so to think that there was someone out there who had also imagined this fascinating collision of disciplinary domains made me quickly write up a letter of application. And so while it was the job ad that got me interested, it was the people that I met here that made me wanna stay.

Q. What are your teaching and research areas?

So I am a 19th century British literature specialist, and that means I teach our 19th century novel in English course, and I have interests in what are called the digital humanities, so I have a new course coming up called "Introduction to Digital Literary Study," so a range of courses, from traditional to very up to date approaches to literary study, with delicious texts at the heart of it all.

Q. Why is accessibility in education important?

A book that was printed on dead trees 200 years ago is accessible in a certain kind of way to certain sorts of readers, but deeply inaccessible to people who couldn't afford a book, to people who don't use their eyes to, as their main way of engaging with the world, and to be born digital is in fact to be born accessible.

Q. What do you think of SUNY Oswego students?

Our students here at SUNY Oswego are the best. SUNY Oswego students are defined by a kind of openness to ideas that I think is both rare and essential, and absolutely wonderful.