Because she's in the process of finishing a book about chickens and their correlation to society, English professor Susan Squier said she gets "cranky" when she's not writing.
"Writing is wonderful when it's wonderful and agonizing when it isn't," she said.
Squier, who according to the English Department's Web site has seven major publications, is working on a book she describes as the "A-B-C of chickens."
In further detail, the work looks at the chicken as a being and a lens to see various aspects of culture, she said. Squier, who has been raising chickens for six years, said the book explores subjects such as biology, disability, epidemics, economics and gender.
The knowledge comes from watching the species' behavior and records from times when "we weren't so distanced from our food," she said.
One student, Angela Ward (graduate-modernism), helped Squier do research for the book in addition to taking a class taught by her, Ward said.
"In the classroom she is one of those professors who exudes enthusiasm for the subject," Ward said. "She's generally excited to hear what the students in her class also have to add to the discussion."
Another aspect of Squier's teaching style Ward said she enjoyed is how Squier allows the students to bring up their own points of interest in the readings.
When she isn't writing about chickens, Squier said she enjoys a variety of subjects.
"The thing that's wonderful about English as a discipline is it allows you to follow your interests," she said.
Among her top interests she listed feminism, the radio, modernism, comic books, science and medicine.
"The way I've defined literature and the way I've worked with it have really changed over the years," Squier said.
Though she was trained to write for scholars, now she is writing more essays and she said, "the older I get, the more I'm interested in a different sort of writing."
One of her other passions is doing archival research, she said.
"I love the sense of discovering the traces of a complete time that gets closed up, but you can open it up and see it and learn about it," she said.
One thing about working in the humanities is that professionals don't tend to work in groups, she said.
"Now there's way more interest in developing writing, working in groups and having a buddy," Squier said. "That is also tremendously fun."
The next book Squier said she will be working on is called Graphic Fiction Project. It's about how comics and graphic fiction can be interwoven with illness and disability. In the book, Squier said she will make the case that graphic fiction is "so reliant on gesture and the whole body for expression. ... It's a really good place to express experiences about disability."
Because it plays visual and verbal off of each other, it's a "good medium to use to talk to people who are dealing with illness and disability," she said.
Though she received her undergraduate and doctorate degrees from Ivy League schools -- Princeton University and Stanford University, respectively -- Squier said she loves working at Penn State.
"It's really interested in taking knowledge and working it out into the community," she said of Penn State.
Squier said she has always wanted to teach and be a writer, and that "teaching and writing in my book are completely inseparable."
