As Laura Jean's husband and biggest fan, I am sharing this feature article from The Advance-Titan, Independent Student Newspaper of The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, on her blog. It's a great article LJ!
Article written By: Kellie Wambold, UWO Senior majoring in theater with minors in creative writing and journalism.
"When students visit English professor Laura Jean Baker’s office, they are greeted by warm-colored orange walls, matching comfy chairs and Baker’s smile.
This environment reflects the many words used to describe Baker: fun, caring, kind, passionate and warm. One word that doesn’t get used as often as it should, graduate student Jordan Brown said, is professional.
“I don’t think she gets as much credit for being professional and really talented as she does for being fun and friendly,” Brown said.
These sentiments are shared by emeritus English professor Paul Klemp.
“She’s charming, she’s sweet,” Klemp said. “It’s impossible not to like her. But then, the thing that people never toss in, is that she’s really freaking smart, and people tend to let that just be assumed.”
Along with being a “fun and friendly” teacher, Baker teaches introductions to English studies, creative writing and memoir. Baker is a memoirist and is publishing her first book in spring 2018 titled, “The Motherhood Affidavits.”
“The Mother Affidavits” started taking form after Baker wrote stand-alone essays revolving around comparisons between motherhood and the clients of her criminal defense attorney husband.
The comparisons began during a case in which a woman accused her boyfriend of killing her cats. It just so happened this woman gave birth the same week Baker had her fourth child.
“Empathizing with her as a mother and trying to understand [her], it got me thinking about empathizing with [my husband’s] clients who are parents,” Baker said.
From there, Baker added, she and her husband realized how much crossover there was between his cases and her life as a mother...."
Please click through to the link for the full article: