In the first part of a new series, the Collegiate sheds light on professors around campus
By: Blake Metiva
Amy French has been with Delta since 2004 when she began as an adjunct professor. But her roots at the college began prior to her career as a professor. French attended Delta prior to attending the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a Bachelors of Arts. French became a stockbroker and worked in the field for five years; she “majored in history for fun.” She had never dreamed of being a professor, but a year into her master’s degree, she realized how much she loved it
“I love this. I want to be a professor, and the rest was history,” French says. She received her Master’s of Arts in history from Central Michigan, and her doctorate degree from Wayne State University.
French says there’s no “most important part” to history, but rather the importance of what is being taught and why.
“The most important part of anything I teach is why it’s important,” French says. “I don’t care what you retain, I care that you understand why it mattered; it’s the importance of whatever it is.” French wants students to take away from her classes a sense of their place in this big world.
“I hope that when they [learn, students] see themselves; my teaching is always about telling the stories of the people who I identify with, or that I think may resemble my students,” French says. She tries to teach about labor histories and marginalized voices. She likes to teach about the people who haven’t had buildings named after them, or books written about them. French feels that most people do not fit into these categories; however she believes using the right to vote is extremely important. One of her hopes is that her students can see that small individual people can make a huge difference in the trajectory of history.
“I hated studying history in K-12; those teachers did everything they could to make me hate history, but traveling was what made me keep coming back.”
Outside of the classroom, French has an alter-ego: the Roaming Historian. French began her YouTube channel because it reflected what she loved.
“It started out by wanting to show history was important in the informal way I was brought to history,” French says. She feels that informal learning experiences are the best way to learn. Travel is a way for people to become better humans. Through travel, French believes, we become better people – or learn about our bad traits.
“I think travel makes you better off as a human being,” French says. “And isn’t that what we’re all striving to be?”
One of the things she wants to present to everyone with her YouTube channel is a sense of adventure. She is a PhD history professor talking about cool things, or things to do in a particular place, or showing a unique side to a subject.
“Roaming Historian was a way to bring actual authentic history to average people,” French says.
If you are interested in history with French, she teaches multiple sections of the subject: Recent African American history (HIS-215), Recent American history (HIS-222), Women and Gender history in the US (HIS-225), and History of Michigan (HIS-237).
