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The Biographical Profile of Maxine HairstonEducationPh.D. University of Texas at Austin, 1968 Major: English M.A. University of Texas at Austin, 2003 Major: European History M.A. University of Texas at Austin, 1958 Major: English B.A. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1944 Major: English Personal BackgroundHairston was born in Ironwood, Michigan on April 9, 1922. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from the
University of Michigan in 1944. Less than two years after receiving her diploma, she married a farmer, James Walter Hairston. They moved together to a farm in Rice’s Crossing, Texas, and had two children, Coles and Lucy. In her 1993 farewell address during the San Diego CCCC convention, which was first published in 2002 in Against The Grain, Hairston recalls what her life was like as a farmer’s wife and the mother of two young children before she returned to academia to begin graduate school. She describes how her working life on the farm helped her to remain pragmatic once she started teaching in the university: “I helped doctor calves for screw worms, put up hay, hauled cotton to the gin, and made a thousand trips to town for tractor parts.” This practical work experience was not intellectually satisfying for Hairston, but once she began working on her master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, she felt fully prepared to address her students’ practical needs in the writing classrooms where she taught as a graduate instructor. Hairston volunteered for many causes in her private life, including serving on the board of trustees for Planned Parenthood and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. She married her second husband, David Cooper, in 1987. Upon her retirement, Hairston traveled widely and pursued a master’s degree in European history. She passed away on July 22, 2005. Professional ExperienceDirector of Freshman English, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts, and Professor Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin
President, Conference of College Teachers of English, 1983 Chair, Conference of College Composition and Communication, 1985 |