www.iggy.com
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Dr. Michelle Igarashi was born in Honolulu but grew up in Upcountry Maui. As a child, she dreamed of visiting exotic locales, i.e., anywhere outside of a twenty-mile radius of cow pastures and meeting people who weren’t teachers or architects like her close family members and parental friends. This desire brought about a love of books, and she read voraciously, even by flashlight under the covers, late into country evenings.
Summers were spent helping her mother teach summer school and by the eleventh grade, Michelle was hooked on education despite childhood misgivings. At the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, she majored in Secondary English graduating with Distinction. With the encouragement of faculty, she then took a Masters of Education degree. Her thesis was titled, Writing from Difference: the Twelfth Grade American Literature Curriculum: A Call for the Inclusion of Works by Authors of Japanese American Ancestry. Much of Michelle’s coursework during this first foray into graduate school was done in the English Department where Professor Peter Nicholson inspired her to concentrate on the Medieval Period. After many hours passionately translating Latin and Old English texts, Michelle decided to turn professional student and entered the Masters of English Program, this time with the intention of becoming an English professor herself. For her PhD, Michelle followed the advice of Manoa faculty member Kathleen Falvey and attended SUNY Stony Brook in New York to study medieval literature and language with classics scholar Joaquin Martinez-Pizarro as well as composition and rhetoric with groundbreaking Pat Belanoff. Michelle also received a graduate certificate in women's studies at the same institution. While completing her dissertation, Michelle was hired as the Assistant Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook. In 2013, Dr. Igarashi returned home to teach at Leeward Community College. She is currently the Developmental Education and Career and Technical Education (CTE) English Coordinator. During her spare time, Michelle enjoys reading, Zumba, chocolate, and spending time with her family playing old fashioned board games. |