Have you met Lucas Crawford, Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts and Humanities at Augustana Campus? Spend a few minutes getting to know Lucas better.
What is your first U of A memory?
Checking into the Campus Suites hotel in Edmonton when I came to visit the Department of English and Film Studies as a prospective PhD student in 2006. I think it was a bad hair day perhaps, but a really good day of meeting people like Dr. Julie Rak, with whom I discussed our shared interests in marching bands. I had a coffee at the Sugarbowl and thought, 'perhaps this university is the place for me.' I didn’t anticipate that I’d be saying that again sixteen years later, rejoining as a faculty member at Augustana.
What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?
I designed a potato chip flavour for an international food conglomerate in 2013. I like shiny manicures. I miss highly opinionated queers. I am from rural Nova Scotia. I am Jewish (secular, cultural, philosophical, gastronomical, intellectual, and a part ancestrally). I like to make ice cream from scratch. I have nine piercings (for now).
What’s your favourite distraction?
It depends on what I’m wanting distraction from! Taking a walk is probably my longest-term habit for taking a break from mental focus. Sometimes when I feel blue or uncertain, I ask myself, “in your entire life, have you ever regretted taking a walk?” And I really haven’t. So I take another one.
If you were enrolling in one course, program or degree right now, what would it be?
I would like to take Cree language classes, as well as history classes in Indigenous law and Canadian law.
What’s a weird pet peeve you have?
When people refer to Ontario and Quebec as Eastern Canada.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
If they’re cooking, it’s Catalan chef Ferran Adrià. Otherwise, it’s Celine Dion, no question.
If you could see any live performance tomorrow, what would it be?
Also Celine Dion, but in a small theatre setting.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
The answer to this is either 3 words or 3000 words, so I’ll just say “keep on trucking.”
What’s one thing you can’t live without?
One? One?! Here’s one for every letter of the alphabet.
Alleve. Brisket. Coconut buns from new town bakery. the Dave matthews band, Even if you’re giggling at that. Felix from road to avonlea (and Felicity too). Garlic. Hydration. Internet. Jeans. Kindreds. Licentiousness. Massage. Nineties nights, Of course. Perversion. Queer theory. Rural maritime towns. Self-deprecation. Therapy. Unassuming people. Vanilla extract. Weightlifting. eXcess. and You can’t forget coke Zero.
What three words describe your U of A experience?
Surprising, Transformative, Perpetual.
About Lucas
Lucas Crawford was born in Halifax, raised in rural Nova Scotia, and is now the Canada Research Chair of Transgender Creativity and Mental Health at University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus. Lucas is the author of an academic book and of four books of poetry, including Muster Points (forthcoming with University of Calgary Press).