Clarksville, TN – Nearly a decade ago, Austin Peay State University (APSU) alumnus Dr. Thom Murphy found his calling when he accidentally signed up for a French course.
Now, he is teaching early modern French through a Career Development Fellowship at New College Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford. He will work there through 2029 and aims to inspire a passion for the language in his own students.
“When I think about teaching French, it’s about making the language something that’s both exciting and usable in an everyday context,” said Murphy, a 2017 APSU Department of Languages & Literature graduate. “[It’s about] making it conversational and fun.”
Austin Peay State University did just that for Murphy, who knew he wanted to continue studying French after his first experience with the language in a classroom setting.
“I liked French immediately,” he said. “I was learning the language and studying literature. A couple of years later, I started taking Greek and then Latin at Austin Peay State University, and that got me into classics.”
Murphy continued his Greek and Latin studies for several years with Dr. Timothy Winters, now the executive director of Honors and PELP at APSU, in Greece.
“It was an amazing experience, but it became useful again when I was writing my dissertation,” Murphy said. “I wrote a huge chapter on ancient Greek dictionaries in the Renaissance.”
As an experienced researcher and educator, Murphy emphasizes the importance of engaging students with a new language.
“All the classes [I’ve] taught were in French, all in French, all the time,” he said. “Getting students to a place where they felt comfortable speaking French, even when they knew very little French, is important.”
Murphy also advises up-and-coming teachers and professors to make the most of professional development opportunities.
“I taught French in the Tri-County Upward Bound program one summer for students whose parents didn’t go to college, from rural areas,” he said. “[That] was one of my early teaching opportunities. I think taking those opportunities is the main thing.”
Murphy said that one of his biggest hurdles as a teacher has been constant moving. After graduating with a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy from New York University, he lived in Paris for three years while writing his doctoral dissertation. Even now, it’s something he still battles.
“I’ve gotten to live in a lot of different places now, which has been exciting, but also challenging,” Murphy said. “You kind of have to start all over again. Every time you move to a new place, it’s like a visa. People talk in a different way. There’s new administrative stuff. It’s finding new housing. It’s making new friends.”
Despite these challenges, Murphy is passionate about teaching students to embrace language learning as a path to new opportunities.
“We try to give students as much of ourselves as we possibly can,” Murphy said. “Students call us with questions. We’re there for them, and we make sure that we’re really prepared.”
