Starting her next chapter: English professor retires after 37 years at Miami

For almost 35 years, Mary Jean Corbett’s office was in Bachelor Hall. Whether it was overlooking Cook Field, next to the courtyard, or looking over the parking lot, Bachelor felt like home.

Two years ago, however, Corbett had to give it up when Miami University announced Bachelor’s complete renovation. It was at that moment she knew her time at Miami was at an end.

“I have a lot of memories of that building,” Corbett said. “It was a very emotional time for me, and I realized that I didn't ever want to go to the new Bachelor. I'm sure it'll be lovely, but I'm not part of the new Bachelor.”

In Corbett’s new office in Harris Hall, there are still two little bookshelves full of books she brought over from the move. She also has an envelope full of yellowing paper student evaluations from 1993. The boxes to move everything out are in the trunk of her car, waiting to be filled.

“One of the good things about having to move two years ago was that I did get rid of a lot of things there,” Corbett said.

Corbett has been at Miami since 1989, after graduating from Stanford University, where she earned a doctorate in English. Originally, Corbett was hired as part of an initiative to diversify Miami’s Department of English. In the five decades Corbett has worked at Miami, she’s seen everything: Miami changing its team names from the Redskins to the RedHawks, the introduction of the plus-and-minus grading scale and the controversy surrounding Cook Field.

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“I’d say we have a more diverse campus [now], and I mean that in terms of gender, sexuality, race, but also class and ability,” Corbett said. “I think it's not perfect, by any means, but there has been some progress over this long period.”

Corbett primarily teaches British literature courses, with a focus on feminist themes. Even when she teaches more generic writing classes, Corbett always prioritizes bonding with students. She’ll even rearrange desks into circles to foster discussions if she has to.

“I've always said that I'm a fun teacher. I have a fun approach, but I try to be fair,” Corbett said. “I want people to feel safe enough to take a risk. It's not always easy to raise your hand and use your voice.”

Riley Courtney, a literature graduate student at Miami, first took one of Corbett’s classes in Spring 2023, a Victorian literature class. She remembers writing a paper in class for a midterm grade. Courtney was analyzing the poem “Goblin’s Gate” by Christina Rossetti and thought she had aced it. A few days later, she got her grade back. It was a “C.”

“I was crushed. I came to her in tears,” Courtney said. “She had me come to her office hours to talk through it. It was very tough love.”

In that meeting, Corbett said Courtney needed to work on her analytical skills if she ever wanted to have a career in literature. She then gave Courtney a book, “101 Great American Poems,” and told her to read it cover to cover.

“When she did that, I left her office crying,” Courtney said. “I called my mom crying. And then by the end of calling my mom, I thought, ‘No, she's right.’ This is never gonna work if I don't know what I'm doing. From that moment on, I really valued her input.”

Despite that rocky start, the bond between Courtney and Corbett has grown stronger. Even in the years when Courtney didn’t have a class with Corbett, she’d still stop by during office hours to chat.

“I dated this awful boy, and she knew about him, and she also knew he was awful. So every time I saw her, she was like, ‘You still with him?’” Corbett said. “She definitely bridges personal and academics in a very good way.”

In fact, it was Corbett’s mentorship that made Courtney realize she might want to consider graduate school instead of pursuing a career in publishing.

“She points me in a lot of directions, and every direction that she's ever pointed me in has led me to some sort of opportunity,” Corbett said. “Mary Jean actually made me realize that was not what I wanted to do, just by making me question every part of that. And then she said, ‘Why don't you just stay in school, get a master's, get a PhD, and teach?’ She also said, ‘The jobs are few and far between, but if it's something you actually want to do, you can do it.’”

For Corbett, these bonds with students are among the main things she’ll miss in her retirement. While normally a stoic, funny and no-nonsense type of person, talking about these relationships makes her a little emotional.

“I do think that students today at Miami are reason to give us hope,” Corbett said. “Talking about students and getting to know students, broadly speaking, has been my favorite part of teaching.”

With a little less than three weeks left in the semester, Corbett is ready to see what life holds in store for her. While she doesn’t have a specific plan just yet, she knows it’ll involve traveling, volunteering, reading a long novel — her favorite activity and possibly relocating to Atlanta.

“I probably need to get a new thing just to keep it fresh, learn something new, take on some new challenge,” Corbett said. “But I'll be pretty content to do very little for a while. I'm looking forward to having some actual rest.”

fahymm@miamioh.edu