Dinah Ryan

She/They/Per

Hometown

Staunton, Virginia

Job Position

Professor of English, writer and visual culture critic

If you were Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s story “The Metamorphosis,” what insect would you turn into?

I would be an ant: strong, purposeful, inventive, and collaborative! 

What does it mean to be an artist/writer in our contemporary culture?

Not only in contemporary culture, but across time and cultures, it has been the work of the artist/writer to gaze past the edge of self and to participate in an honest conversation about shared lived experience.