PirateQ 
Marisa Mills
Dr. Marisa Mills, Assistant Professor in English and Communications, could be – and perhaps should be – a protagonist in a novel set in the 12th century. Coming from Irish ancestry, her fiery and outgoing personality shines through.
A true medievalist, Mills often attends Renaissance fairs and loves Arthuriana. “That’s a fancy term scholars use to mean ‘stories and media about King Arthur,’ and if any students ever want to talk about King Arthur, they’re welcome to swing by my office and chat!” enthused Mills.
Dr. Mills’ passion for scholarly discourse extends beyond casual conversation. Completing her doctoral dissertation is a point of pride. “It was a validation that I have what it takes to be considered a serious scholar.” Mills is the first doctor on either side of her family, so finishing the dissertation was really important to her.
Similarly, getting inducted into the Academy of Teaching Excellence this week feels like a validation that she has what is needed to be a professor. Mills said she enjoys teaching students, but that wasn’t always the case.
“When I taught my first classes as a teaching assistant, I remember crying a lot and worrying that I was just the worst instructor in the world. I remember telling my mentor that I really just wanted to be an ‘okay’ instructor because I knew I wasn’t going to be the best, so ATE is important to me because it’s a nice reminder of how far I’ve come.”
This composition and literature professor originally comes from East Tennessee but came to the Gulf Coast as a teenager and moved to Pensacola eight years ago.
Proud to live here and hoping to for many years to come, Mills said she would treat visitors to a trip to the beach, but they could only stay for a couple of hours. “Every time I go to the beach, I’m very aware of my Irish ancestry because my pasty skin just bursts into flames.”
A trip downtown would be next on the agenda, as Mills said there is a kind of liveliness down Palafox she really enjoys, with great venues – like the Pensacola Little Theater – and events to attend like Gallery Night, the Pensacola Ballet or Winterfest.
After working up an appetite from the day, they would head to Jaco’s Bayfront Bar & Grille, Doncha Peruvian Food or Tacos Mexicanos food truck on 12th Avenue. “Their guacamole is unmatched,” asserted Mills.
Also unmatched is this English professor’s admiration for an individual she has never met: Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner (1811 – 1874). “I would be willing to bet you’ve never gotten this answer before,” said Dr Mills.
“Sumner was a senator and abolitionist, and he’s most known for being the senator who was nearly caned to death by Congressman Preston Brooks after giving a rather fiery anti-slavery speech. If you read historical accounts of this incident, it’s clear that it was very violent and traumatic, and it’s not something he ever wholly recovered from. He was, in fact, absent from the Senate for about three years following the attack, but then, he went back,” she shared.
“Sumner continued making these elaborate speeches arguing for abolitionism and racial equality; if anything, he seemed more enthusiastic about it. I’m not the sort of person who really ‘admires’ historical figures per se, but I think a lot about Sumner’s moral fortitude and how utterly uncompromising he was regarding his convictions,” she continued.
“He must have had so much courage and determination! And I think that’s very admirable. It’s far easier to say you’ll do the good thing, the right thing, but much harder to keep doing the right thing when faced with opposition,” Mills concluded.
Impassioned by stories of standing up for legal rights ties in with something others might not know about her – including her colleagues, with whom she talks openly and regularly. This literature professor is penning a novel of her own, a romantasy about witchy lawyers set in Regency-era England.
“I haven’t told anyone in my department about it. My colleagues are such talented writers and scholars that they intimidate me a little, so I tend to downplay and not talk about my creative work that much. But if they read The Pirate, I suppose they’ll all know about my novel now!” Mills confessed.