Five Questions: Dr. Patrick Byrne

A native Newfoundlander, Pat Byrne was born in Great Paradise on Placentia Bay. He started his MA at Memorial in 1968, and was hired as an instructor in 1969. After spending some years working in the university administration, he got his PhD in 1993, and has since then been cross-appointed with the Department of Folklore. Pat has taught many graduate courses over the years, but has most frequently offered an extremely popular seminar on Utopias and Dystopias. Pat retired this past December after forty-two years with Memorial.

1. What was your best grad school experience?

See below.

2. What was your worst grad school experience?

I’ll respond to 1 & 2 together.  At the MA level the best experience was getting the green light to do a thesis on Heller’s Catch-22 at a time when it was being savaged by the reviewers.  The worst experience was trying to complete the thesis while teaching three semesters back to back.  At the PhD  level the worst experience was being told early in the programme, by a professor for whom I had a great deal of respect, that he did not think I was PhD material! The best experience was being approached by the same professor some months later with an offer to supervise my thesis.

3. What was the place outside your home/apartment where you spent the most time?

My MUN office...from 8 pm to 1 or 2 am...day after day after...etc.

4. What text/book did you do in grad school that you never, ever want to encounter again?

The Sorrow of the Lonely and theBurning of the Dancers by  Edward L. Schieffelin, with Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and  Song in Kaluli Expression by Steven Feld...both of which are excellent ethnographies, just not my cup of tea.

5. What was your grad school comfort food?

Screech ... still is.