An Interview with Dr. Bertekap

This past December, I sat down with Dr. Sarah Bertekap who was wrapping up her first semester at the Indiana Academy. I wanted to get a fuller picture of who she was, both as a person and as an educator, and I wanted to give all Academites this same opportunity. Below you will find the (mostly unedited) transcript of my questions, marked with a Q, and her responses, marked with an A. It was an absolute pleasure getting to sit down with Dr. Bertekap, so thank you to her and anyone who reads this! Please enjoy!

Q: What is one of your favorite childhood memories? Why does that one stick out to you? 

A: There isn’t really one specific memory that sticks out to me more than others, but I fondly remember just fully being a horse girl. My family was hit pretty hard by the Recession, but I, thankfully, had the opportunity to ride horses–something I loved to do–so most of my best memories are either riding or pretending to be a horse. I’m very allergic to both horses and just nature in general, but I very much did not let that stop me. 

Q: What is your favorite book and why? 

A: Little Women is a very easy answer, mostly just because I so heavily relate and identify with Jo March. That’s my go-to guilty pleasure answer, but my more technical, English teacher answer is At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill. It’s a queer retelling of an Irish independence movement, an excellent piece of historical fiction. I love both Irish history/literature and just general queer revisionist history, so this is like the perfect intersection between the two, I absolutely love it. 

Q: What inspired you to teach English? 

A: So I went to Catholic school like basically my whole life, very steeped in all of that. In middle school, I read The Chronicles of Narnia and learned that they’re a religious allegory- blew my mind. From that moment onward, I knew I loved adaptation, a very literature-y thing. My grandma was a teacher as well, so that also nudged me in the direction of it, but I initially thought I wanted to teach the younger ones, like kindergarten or something. I absolutely hated educational psychology, so I very quickly pivoted to highschool/college-age students instead, which I’ve really appreciated, just because of the higher level of complexity I can teach and talk about things with. 

Q: How do you feel like you’ve been acclimating to the Academy so far? 

A: I feel like I’ve been acclimating pretty decently, I like it a lot here. This is the first job I’ve had that I have like a genuine connection to- it just feels very personal. I love the general whimsy of everyone connected to the school, as well as the very very strong sense of community you all have, it’s very nice. The staff are very involved and connected to the students, something I am very much not used to and love. Just personally, I am very happy that I’m allowed to teach electives as a first year teacher, I wouldn’t get to do that just about anywhere else. Mostly though, I love just the level of enthusiasm that both the students and faculty have for what they’re doing, it’s super awesome to see. 

Q: Is there anything that you don’t like about the Academy? 

A: Ooh, let me see how I can get myself in trouble with this one. To be honest, I feel like I am very much an Academy student at heart, something I think all of you can understand. So I’ll just give you all some advice that I would give myself at your age: it will be okay. I find that I have to tell myself that now with a new job and all of that, and I know that all of you are going through the equally scary process of new colleges or just being new to the Academy, which is a parallel that I am not a super big fan of. I mean this in the super good, nice, kind way, nothing else, but I wish Academy students could be just a bit less anxious, but I know that’s like an insane ask, I was the exact same way. 

Q: Has there been anything about the Academy that has taken some time to get used to? 

A: Honestly, most of it is just because you guys are all, like, minors. There’s all kinds of extra paperwork for things, I actually have to care about your attendance, but it’s honestly kinda refreshing too. There are so many safety nets available for you guys, it’s heartwarming. Also, I have way more students here than I used to, which has been an experience for me. I’m very quickly learning that I need to scale back the amount of feedback that I give on things, but that is definitely a work in progress. 

Q: If you could teach any elective for a semester, no limits, what would it be? 

A: Well, I have this vision of a like two-in-one class, alternating between LGBTQ literature and modern Irish literature, starting both of them with Oscar Wilde. These are both issues I am very passionate about and just generally enjoy, so a course on them would be excellent. They would definitely have a fairly heavy reading-load and be very English-y, but I would recommend these fake, made-up classes to just about anyone, not just the English nerds of the Academy. 

Q: What is your favorite movie? 

A: My technical, film-bro-y answer is Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Truly it’s just an impressive movie, it is visually stunning, I mean it’s just incredible. It was recommended to me by Greg something, one of the people on my dissertation committee, I just love it. However, my overall favorite is easily the 1990 Little Women, it’s just embedded into my DNA. I mean, I’ve seen that movie truly so many times, it’s insane. Honorable mention though to the entire Mamma Mia franchise- who doesn’t love them?

Q: What would be the one piece of advice you would offer to Academy students? 

A: Breathe. 

Q: What was your dissertation about? 

A: My dissertation was grossly long, somewhere between 200 and 220 pages. Super briefly summarized, it analyzes texts from the turn of the 20th century that have been adapted into queer experiences, particularly from Irish literature, looking at how they’ve been adapted into the modern day. I spent an entire chapter talking about Oscar Wilde, focusing in on how all of the decidedly dated things he wrote get adapted. The next chapter is about At Swim, Two Boys and other similar books. I also spent a chapter on like failed adaptations and how that can actually work in favor of queer narratives. Finally, I talked about how authors hide or celebrate their queerness, successfully or unsuccessfully, as well as how that affects the work. 

Q: Do you feel like you’re going to change your teaching style going forward? 

A: To be honest, I can’t think of much that I’m planning to change. I’ve let the students choose their readings from the massive textbooks for my classes- which I definitely enjoyed, but it had its pros and cons. I plan to continue that at least in part, giving it some structure, but I don’t plan to eliminate student choice. Other than that, I can’t think of much. 

Q: What is your favorite color? 

A: For like my whole life I would’ve said blue, but right now I think it’s green. I am a huge fan of nature, nature is green. Ireland is also green, the “Emerald Isle” and all that, so yeah, probably green. 

Q: Do you have any ideas floating around for May Term courses you would like to offer? 

A: I would love to do a course on Little Women, Irish stage drama, an LGBTQ literature course, or anything else in that sort of niche. I am also working on hopefully doing a trip this next academic year, which should be super fun. 

Q: What is your dream home aesthetic? 

A: Well, my current goal is just a fully functional house- the aesthetics of it are a next-step type of thing. I definitely want a big garden, and just that like cozy library feeling; greens, browns, reds, definitely not in any way gothic or colorless. Something very similar to cottagecore but not quite. I like light, so I want lots of that, big windows, etc. I am a big fan of lamps, so lots of those too. 

Q: What is your dream job, and how has your answer changed since you were a child? 

A: Honestly, the only non-dream aspect of the job I currently have is how far I am from my family. I would definitely like to be closer to them, but that isn’t a major detractor by any means. I really like how many different hats I can wear here, it really does check all of my current boxes. I wanted to work in undergrad previously due to just the high level of queer visibility, but that’s also present at the Academy. Prior to my revelation in middle school, I probably would’ve said either a horse-riding instructor or a swim teacher- something like that.