Patrick Fergus
@Fergus5Fergus
Rebecca Lartigue has been a professor of English at Springfield since 2015 and has long shared her love of literature in and beyond the classroom. Lartigue became the Director of the Honors Program in 2019, where she helped the members reach new academic heights. Just this past year, she also became the “Distinguished Professor of Humanics” for the 2025-26 school year. Lartigue’s other research interests include Shakespeare and Medieval literature. Lartigue spoke with The Student about how she handles the many different hats she wears at Springfield.
Student: What does the role of the 25-26 “Distinguished Professor of Humanics” entail?
Lartigue: Each DPH uses the role to bring attention to a theme and project related to Humanics that is meaningful to them. My project will explore the importance of cultivating curiosity. To be happy, successful people, we all need to be curious about the world, about others, and about ourselves; we need to keep learning, and we need to cultivate intrinsic motivations to do so.
Student: How have you balanced that with your classes, as well as being the Director of the Honors Program?
Lartigue: Not well! All SC faculty are balancing a lot of responsibilities in and out of the classroom: teaching, advising, mentoring; research, scholarship and/or creative projects; and service on department and college committees, as well as service to the broader professional and public community. I’m doing my best to integrate all of my commitments this fall, but spring 2026 will have to be where most of my “Cultivating Curiosity” projects will be implemented.
Student: What does the Honors Program provide students? Why do you think it is valuable to try to join?
Lartigue: It offers highly motivated, curious students the opportunity to be part of a great community of learners. They get to work with outstanding faculty, develop interdisciplinary skills and skills for life-long learning, and produce their own scholarly or creative projects. I think the Honors Program is a great place to practice skills that not only appeal to employers and graduate school admissions committees but that also create happy, well-rounded graduates who will be leaders in making the world a more socially-just place.
Student: Is there a class you haven’t taught that you’d like to in the future?
Lartigue: I have many “dream classes”! I most enjoy teaching medieval and Early Modern (Renaissance) literature, and I’d love the chance to teach again a prior “dream course” that involved Spring Break travel to the U.K. to see sites related to the early literatures that I taught that semester. Getting to experience Old English and medieval history and culture with students, while studying works like Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and the York mystery plays, was just fantastic.
Student: As someone interested in Shakespeare, do you have a favorite play? Character? Quote?
Lartigue: My current favorite play is Cymbeline, which doesn’t get taught or produced as often as it deserves to, in my opinion, so I teach it as often as I can. It has a bonkers plot with all these dangers and mysteries and what-seem-like losses, but then everything turns out well in the end (as is typical of the “romance” play genre).
Photo courtesy of Springfield College