Prof likes imitating bird calls, training cats
Getting a small trailer perfect for visiting places all over the United States and Canada as well as making and illustrating more books are some things Anne Shifrer said she would like to do in the future.
Having received her higher education at the University of Utah and University of British Columbia in Canada, Shifrer has been teaching for 20 years now at USU for the English department.
Regarding her work, she said, “I love stimulating curiosity in students that they may otherwise not be interested in and seeing a student fall in love with a subject and … having discussions where students bring new insights and can learn from each other.”
What Shifrer said she does not particularly like are the demands put on the professors as they are expected to multitask to the point where they are too spread out, making it difficult to have a balanced life.
Before becoming a professor, Shifrer worked in other occupations, some of them being a magazine where she was a theater reviewer, a researcher on Native American history, and a researcher into 20th and 21st century poetry. Many of Shifrer’s articles on poetry have also been published.
In her spare time, Shifrer said she indulges in a few hobbies, including bird watching, hiking, collecting paper dolls, training her cats and book making. Collecting the paper dolls, Shifrer said, has been something she’s been doing for years, whether she’s made them herself or friends have given them to her as gifts. She said she would really like to make one for her niece someday. With her hobby of book making, she said enjoys binding them herself, some being journals, and painting the pages and decorating them.
As for Shifrer’s cats, she describes them as Humane Society cats. She trains them to do the kinds of things a show cat does, simply out of fun. Shifrer has three cats, Bailey and Jetta, and her third, Kinko, she found meowing in the rain.
One of the quirky things Shifrer said she likes to do is imitate animal sounds and actions, like that of a great horned owl, with her husband, and have the other guess what it is.
Another quirk is that when she buys cookies, she said she must eat the broken ones first.
At the end of a long day, Shifrer said she relieves stress by going on walks, watching a movie, engaging in meditation or working in her garden.
Some of Shifrer’s favorite authors are Elizabeth Bishop and the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, whom she teaches a class on. When asked what authors she recommends, she said Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, French author Collette and Toni Morrison.
Shifrer has visited Slovenia to enjoy time in the company of relatives over the years and has toured other parts of Europe as well. Some of the places she said she would most like to visit would be the small Himalayan country Bhutan in South Asia between India and China, as well as somewhere in Africa, Chile and also Brazil.
Shifrer considers Joseph Kornell to be one of her favorite artists, though she has many she admires, and finds picking a favorite artist, like picking a favorite book or author, a difficult task.
Shifrer said if she could, she would like to meet the Dalai Lama because “He is supposed to have such a powerful presence, it would be neat to meet him in person.”
Another person she would love to meet would be Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun in Canada.
Three things Shifrer said she feels every person needs to be happy in this life are nature, intimacy in their life and books.
-jess.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu