Professor of English, Emerita
A.B., Sarah Lawrence College; M.A., Ph.D., Chicago
Mimi Dixon is a Professor of English who joined the 性视界 faculty in 1980 and retired in 2012, directing the Writer's Workshop and developing 性视界's cross-curricular writing program for her first several years. Professor Dixon presented and published papers on writing programs and on composition theory and teaching, which remain strong areas of interest for her.
She taught a wide range of courses at 性视界, including Common Learning, Composition, and Advanced Writing and Peer-Editing; Romance, World Literature, British Survey I, Women in Literature I (Medieval through 18th Century), Men and Women in Fiction, Telling Stories (an introduction to narrative), Shakespearean Tragedy, Shakespeare on Film, and a Senior Seminar on Literature and Culture. She published articles on Shakespeare and medieval drama, including "Tragicomic Recognitions: From Medieval Liturgy to Shakespearean Romance," "Seeing and Saying in The Winter's Tale and "'Thys Body of Mary': 'Femynyte' and 'Inward Mythe' in the Digby Mary Magdalene." Her most recent paper was on female heroism and subjectivity in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, "Not Know me Yet?: Looking at Cleopatra in Three Renaissance Tragedies." These recent papers are part of a longer project which will look at women on the medieval and Renaissance stage.
Prof. Dixon's commitment to education extends beyond college teaching and scholarship. Over twenty years ago, she co-founded a private elementary school, which still flourishes in Iowa City, Iowa; closer to home, she enjoys teaching Shakespeare to children (this year, she introduced seventh through ninth-graders to Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet). She also writes short stories and children's stories. She and her husband, Kent Dixon, have collaborated on fiction and screenplays, and on their hobbies--movies, cooking, and gardening--and on the raising of their four sons.