Introducing Dr. Crazy Cat Lady

Some years ago, I got into the blogging game with a blog called “Musing of a Backrow Baptist.”  However, I find that I have outgrown the general premise of that blog and thus, in an attempt to be (somewhat) more grownup and professional, I give you…Dr. Crazy Cat Lady.

First, about the name….I have a PhD in Religion, Politics, and Society from the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University.  I am currently a visiting assistant professor of religious studies (with the occasional foray into the Political Science Department) at my alma mater, Oklahoma State University.  While it took some time to get used to being called “Dr. Wheatley,” I have come to both accept and in many ways embrace it.  

I often tell people that given the sheer number of undergraduates I deal with on a regular basis (662 this year alone—a long story), I have no need for children of my own.  Instead, I have four 4-legged, furry, feline children.  I am regularly chided by friends as being one cat away from being a crazy cat lady.  They might be giving me too much credit as I’m pretty sure I’m already there.  So there you have it—Dr. Crazy Cat Lady…a bit of a renaissance women who can discuss musical theater, college athletics, American politics, animal welfare, and Islam with equal aplomb.  No doubt this blog will touch at various times on all of these issues, but particularly the Islam of it all.

The focus on Islam revolves in many ways around my understanding of my role as professor.  I see my role as three-fold: teacher, academic, and public intellectual.  Being a teacher is about more than imparting information.  It’s about instilling life lessons into college students—attention to detail, the importance of following directions, finding one’s calling, working out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling (and occasionally profanity).  This is my favorite part of the professoriate.  

Next is the egg-head academic part.  This is where research, writing, and publishing come in.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I focus on, but this is often an intensely lonely, soul-killing process.  There’s also not much in the way of instant gratification.  Editing, peer review, constant revisions—all of these things take time.  Lots and lots of time.  

Finally, the most important part of my job is the role of public intellectual.  I fell into this role a long time ago.  I was a sophomore at Oklahoma State University when the attacks on 9/11 occurred.  I had just begun immersing myself in the world of Islam and the Middle East, and even then, I found myself doing what I could to counter the false over-generalizations people had of Islam.  Now, with a PhD to my name, I find myself confronted with the responsibility, as one who may be smarter than the average bear, of making sense of a world gone mad.  It’s frustrating, and occasionally infuriating, but it’s also something I find to be vitally important in this world gone mad in which we all live.