PROF TALK: Dr. Sarah-Jane Corke

By Rebecca Spence, Staff Contributor

Your heart is pounding. Your hands are sweaty and trembling. There are butterflies in your stomach. Your professor has just called on you to give your opinion on whether or not Henry Kissinger should be considered a war criminal.
Speaking up in class is some students’ worst nightmares. Dr. Sarah-Jane Corke, a Dalhousie history professor, is doing her part to encourage students to confront that nightmare head on through seminar classes and structured debates.
“I know that when I was younger I did not like to talk in class,” says Corke, who specializes in American history. “I actually stopped going to seminar classes in my first year because I was so nervous about talking.”
After eight years of teaching, Corke says she sees that women tend to be more hesitant to talk in class than men. She believes that her course content – American foreign policy and intelligence history – is linked with the social expectation that men would know more, causing women to hang back. But she also believes their reluctance is perpetuated by cultural barriers.
“Women are taught even today not to cause controversies,” she says. “I think women should push the boundaries.”
Corke often notices cases where female students are criticized for their strength in their arguments, whereas men are never condemned for being outspoken.
“It’s difficult for a young woman to be as vocal and as argumentative – which I think is a good thing – in classes, without being labeled as bitchy or aggressive.”
Corke thinks it is tough to find scholarly female role models in fields such as diplomatic history and military history, which could be a contributing factor to this trend. She recalls doing her MA at the University of Guelph, where she wanted to study American foreign policy. She encountered strong encouragement from her male professors to choose social and cultural history, like the rest of her female colleagues. Even while doing her PhD at the University of New Brunswick, Corke had to fight against being pressured to pursue women’s history instead.
“I’m not trying to be dismissive of women’s history,” she says. “It plays a huge role. But at the same time we also need female historians of American foreign relations, we need female military historians, we need female historians of intelligence. Women should be reaching out by going into all fields. I think they have a contribution to make.”
Corke serves as an outstanding example for young women interested in studying history at Dal. She constantly goes out of her way to pull female students aside to encourage them – either individually or as a group. She also acknowledges that she’s had a number of male students come to see her because they are so nervous about talking in public.
“I think men and women are equally insecure and equally strong,” she says. “But I think it’s harder for women to make their voice heard.”
She always tell students – whether they’re male or female – that it is much better to learn how to speak confidently in a second- or third-year seminar class for 20 per cent of their grade with people you will never see again, as opposed to learning the skills in your first real job interview or work presentation.
“If I could encourage even one or two young women to think about being a more active participant in their education, that would be a good thing.”

The author interviewed her professor for this article.