Calm and Casual

    Spinning on his navy Nike running shoes Dr. Foley turns to face the class, looking over his students from beyond his clear colored square glasses he gives them a smile. He lays his bag down on the floor and turns on the projector to a powerpoint on one tab, and a movie clip on another. As he prepares to teach his eleven am U.S. History course he flippantly asks "Anyone do anything fun over the weekend?". Dr. Foley stands taller than most, and keeps his salt and pepper hair combed neatly to one side. He usually wears an odd colored button up, such as his navy blue with white spots that has the look of a clear starry night, as well as

various colored dress pants. One such dress shirt can be seen in the photo to the right, beneath the sweater he chooses to wear on brisk mornings. Dr. Foley is very much a casual teacher. As he teaches his class he meanders around the front of the room, sometimes from right to left, going behind his desk, or in front of it, every once in a while pausing to casually lean his back on the wall, all while his hands rest relaxed in his pockets. Occasionally Dr. Foley will even roll about the room while on his white swivel chair, scooting around much like an ancy five year old would.

    Dr. Foley, as he paces, gives his students his version of a lecture, which involves many more questions and interjections from his students than the usual lecture. He tops all of his lectures off from a clip of a relevant movie. Analyzing films that take place throughout history to see "how problematic" as he puts it, is one of his favorite hobbies. This particular day he plays a clip from Lincoln, explaining how it shows the tension of the time, but also the things the movie does incorrectly. After this class Dr. Foley will jump right into teaching the same course again at noon, after which he will take a short lunch break, where he normally eats a sandwich, before welcoming students into his office hours. 

    Dr. Foley is a new professor at Bloomsburg through the Frederick Douglas Institute, moving from the University of Virginia to teach this year. UVA is the school where he got his PHD, through a PHD fellowship program, after working for his undergraduate degree in Oregon. This was actually Dr. Foley’s second attempt at an undergraduate degree, his first right out of high school ended after he dropped out. Being a first year student within the Foley family, he found himself unready to become an adult and turned to alcoholism. Coming out of college as a drop out in his early twenties he described himself as “unhoused and dying of alcoholism”. After some time he decided to go straight and “I have been 15 years sober now” he claimed, after being sober for a few years he jumped into a sales/marketing job. “I saw that all these people around me who had degrees weren’t as smart as I was, and it motivated me to go back and finish my bachelors degree.” After his bachelors he applied to the PHD fellowship previously mentioned. Dr. Foley focussed on the Carceral State for his PHD, a video leading to quick dive into what the Carceral state is can be found here.

    Since moving to Bloom Dr. Foley has set up his office on the second floor of the Arts and Administration building. Upon entering his office the first thing a person would notice is dim lighting in the room. Dr. Foley always leaves the lights off, but the shades on the window up, which allows for natural light to spew in, this gives the room a warm feeling and a disarming dimness to it. Much like his classroom his office is very much plain. There are very few objects of color in the room, one notable thing is a bowl of candy he keeps on his desk in a sky blue ceramic bowl. It rests in the same position each week, like a dog sitting patiently for it’s owner to give it a walk. This bowl hasn’t had the contents changed in a long while, the same few AirHeads and Starbursts remain laying haphazardly in the container. Another key detail to this small room is the bastion-like coat rack resting in the corner almost behind the door. When sitting in the gray plastic chairs on their little cushioned seat this large wooden rack looms over you in a menacing way, almost like a feral animal waiting to strike. Next to the looming rack stands Dr. Foley’s neatly organized bookshelf, it sports nearly eighty to ninety books standing at attention. Each rests leaning on the book to its right, with the very last
book on each shelf leaning diagonally like a support beam to hold the rest up. Dr. Foley reads a wide variety of books, such as things from W.E.B. Du Bois on slavery, all they way to books on Marxism. This neat, yet casual room fit the mold of the person who resides in it very well.

    Dr. Foley during one of his classes, while waiting for some students to catch up with notes, pulled a white raised plastic chair to the front of the room. He smirked and chuckled a bit, and remarked “You know, I had a nightmare the other night. I was sitting on this chair right up here in front of yall, and I fell off the chair. All of yall just sat there and laughed and nobody helped me up.” He smirked and chuckled, “I’m sure one of you guys would help me up if that really happened.” The class shared a quick laugh at the casual little joke, while Dr. Foley went back to pacing with his hands in his pocket preparing to pick back up the lesson.
    The casual flow and banter that Dr. Foley encourages is one of the reasons his students like him so much, one student remarked “[Dr. Foley is] a very charismatic and laid back teacher.” This bond between student and teacher is one Dr. Foley appreciates deeply. “The best thing about teaching? Well it’s a two way tie for me, one is getting to see people light up.” Dr. Foley described that seeing a student become inspired, or learn something that truly intrigues them is one of the greatest feelings as a teacher. “The other is seeing improvement in students, in class with grades for students who don’t necessarily find history as their best subject, but also just in general.” As such Dr. Foley is a very accepting and welcoming teacher. During one of his classes a student arrived nearly seven minutes late, and many have witnessed the wrath of teachers for even being moments late, however Dr. Foley just smiled and dismissed their apology explaining that it was no big deal. He quickly told the student where they were in the notes, and what they had missed.

     Taking pride in his work Dr. Foley enjoys teaching as much as learning. “Having students who have no prior knowledge of the things I am teaching them, I love to hear their perspective, those minds are a blank slate and are the most creative.” He claimed that he learns more from his students than he could ever teach them. Dr. Foley truly attempts to reach out to all his students, and ensure success in all of them, making hima very approachable and friendly professor at Bloomsburg. Whenever a person is looking to take a history course, make sure you keep your eyes open for Dr. Foley, he is excited to meet and get to know as many students as possible, and is even open to help out in other areas however he can.