Faculty Profile She May Not

Faculty Profile

She may not walk around barefoot, but Anna Mahler does like to hold classes outside on sunny days. The second-year Spanish professor comes to Emory from Alabama via the University of Pittsburgh. With a background in Latin American literature, she aims to inspire students the same way that she was inspired by Southern and Caribbean writers growing up.

Anna Garland Mahler brings a unique perspective to Emory. She was raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and that city's segregation had a profound influence on her outlook on the world. She drew parallels between the struggles against authority in Southern literature and themes from Latin and Caribbean literature. This led her to pursue an undergraduate degree in Hispanic Literature from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mahler was drawn to Emory because of its PhD program and in part because of its proximity to her family. She has extensive experience traveling abroad in order to supplement her education in Hispanic Literature, including trips to Uruguay, the Dominican Republic and three trips to Chile. "The people there are brutally honest," she remarks about the Dominican, noting a time when a grandfather called the home where she was staying with another student and asked "Are you the skinny one or the fat one?"

Her upbringing reveals itself not only in a thick southern accent and a bevy of sundresses, but also in her attitudes toward the world. Growing up in a segregated society, she determined "to break out of the bubble I was in," which resulted in her spending a lot of time on the poor side of town. "As a white woman in the South, if you want to break out, you have to do-it-yourself."

As a result, she was drawn to southern, Latin and Caribbean literature. She loves the way that the literature is used to break down inequalities. She was attracted to the common themes of dealing with the approach to hierarchical powers and breaking down colonial and Western concepts.

This desire to break from social norms led to her being the only white woman in the gospel choir of 70 people at the University of Pittsburgh. "I didn't know everyone's name, but everyone knew who I was because I was the white girl," she remarked. People in Pittsburgh were often curious about the Alabama native. "Everyone always asked me such off the wall questions like do you walk around barefoot in Alabama." For the record, she does not.

She does, however, have big plans for her career. The one-time immigration lawyer moonlighted as an editor at the Latin American Review Press and was impressed with her boss, a 90-year-old woman. This experience has inspired Mahler, who eventually wants to have her own journal or press.

This independent streak dates to her upbringing. "I was a very latchkey kid," she explains, and was raised by her siblings. As a result, she was a bit of a neighborhood terror as well. "I even had my own army of 1st graders that I made do push-ups and if they didn't, I sent them to jail, which was the jungle gym."

For now, however, her focus is on Emory and her family. She married her high school sweetheart, Andrew Mahler, and the couple now reside in Stockbridge. Anna wants to focus on building bonds with her students as well. "I hope to make lasting personal and professional relationships and contribute to colleague's work and students. I want to inspire the same interest in my students that has been inspired in me."

Her personal interests beyond Hispanic and Caribbean literature include "some grandma things," as she puts it, like making jams. "I like to garden, too, even though I don't know what I'm doing. She also has a passion for red wine, collecting folk art, shopping, Cold War politics and attending concerts and shows.

Mahler views her career at Emory as a springboard to her life goals. She wants to publish books, write a novel, have an old house with a wraparound porch and travel a lot more. Basically, "I want to find a way to keep singing in my life," she explains, "No matter how old I am, I can be productive and have a passion."