Instructor Spotlight: Dr. Russell
Dr. Mackenzie Russell is a current English instructor at OHS who teaches Textual Analysis and Argumentation and AP English Language and Composition. Next year, she will be teaching a new Advanced Topics in Literature course on the Harlem Renaissance!
As she spent much of her childhood exploring her local library as a lover of reading, it seems only fitting that Dr. Russell would become a teacher with a contagious passion for literature!
Originally from Rhode Island, Dr. Russell grew up in a variety of places across the East Coast. Dr. Russell was homeschooled until the age of fourteen, when she began to attend boarding school. She describes her decision to attend as “the best possible thing [she] could have done,” jokingly sharing that her experience at boarding school was not entirely unlike Harry Potter’s experience at Hogwarts with regard to her relationships with her friends. As a high school student, Dr. Russell was urged to take part in swimming and water polo, though she laughs that she quit the swim team “in a blaze of glory” as she pursued other new extracurriculars. After graduating from high school, Dr. Russell attended Princeton University and Stanford University, where she obtained a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.
Any student whom Dr. Russell has taught is aware of her contagious passion for literature, but Dr. Russell did not always know that she wanted to become a teacher. When asked about what drew her to comparative literature, Dr. Russell shares that “everything under the sun happens in [comparative literature]!” Intrigued by the connections that could be drawn and explored through comparative literature, Dr. Russell explains that “once [she] landed on that, […] it was very obvious that [comparative literature] was what [she] was going to do!”
Having been introduced to teaching during her time at Stanford University, Dr. Russell taught a wide variety of literature courses as a part of her graduate program. At only twenty-five years old, she was barely older than the students she was teaching, which she describes as a terrifying prospect. However, as soon as she began to teach, Dr. Russell remarks that she “just loved it.” From that point forward, Dr. Russell knew that teaching was her path.
As for becoming a teacher at OHS, Dr. Russell describes her experience as an act of serendipity! Having just finished her fellowship, Dr. Russell happened upon OHS purely by chance. When she discovered her soon-to-be teaching position at OHS, Dr. Russell explains that she could not get over how “weirdly perfect” the opportunity seemed to be. Dr. Russell immediately loved her the OHS community and the English department, which she describes as “a little enclave of academics doing what they love!”
Outside of teaching, Dr. Russell is a lover of books, horror movies, camping, and exercising. She can also be found spending time with her dogs who often make guest appearances in her classes, which are very much appreciated by her students! In recent years, Dr. Russell has also developed an interest in cooking French food and soups, though she jokes that she spent the entirety of college eating only pita bread and hummus.
Her inspiring advice to students, no matter what they choose to do, is to remember that “you have the right and the responsibility to determine the kind of life that you want to live!”