Dr. Lynn Scott followed a somewhat circuitous route into the then Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. At the “advanced age of 23,” as Lynn put it, she moved to Mexico with her English-speaking husband and only then began learning Spanish—primarily by having to shop for basic household necessities. Lynn had studied both French and Italian in college, and her background in those closely related Romance languages proved to be quite useful. During and after her year in Mexico City, she continued to study Spanish on her own, and her confidence and competence in the language continued to develop. After substitute-teaching at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Lynn decided to jump into the MA program in Spanish at 40+ years of age. “I loved it — the intellectual stimulation of the classes, the teaching, the research,” she writes. Dr. Geraldine Nichols (now Professor Emerita) encouraged Lynn to continue her studies in the UF Ph.D. program. As Lynn recalls, “it was hard with two kids at home, but it was a great cultural and intellectual experience. I’m still in touch with several of my graduate student colleagues who treated me as an equal and, better yet, respected my knowledge.” While working on her Ph.D. dissertation, Lynn’s research was supported with a CLAS Dissertation Fellowship and grants from the Tinker Foundation and the Program for Cultural Cooperation in Madrid. In addition, she was named the Tybel Spivack Scholar in Women’s Studies in 1993. Her dissertation focused on the early 20th-century Spanish author, Carmen de Burgos, and she completed her Ph.D. in 1999. Lynn’s essay on one of Carmen de Burgos’s works was published in the Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature. Lynn recently donated her copies of many of the author’s writings to the department.
Lynn Scott“It was hard with two kids at home, but it was a great cultural and intellectual experience.”
Once Lynn was no longer teaching and had some free time, she and her husband were invited to join a Spanish-speaking social group called Los Amigos de Gainesville where they were the only non-Latino couple. Lynn writes: “It was great for my Spanish and I learned to dance the merengue—sort of!” But she and her husband have decided that it’s time for them to leave Gainesville and move closer to their three grand-daughters, the eldest of whom is only 5. “Unfortunately,” Lynn concludes, “they’re in cold Connecticut.” But she looks forward to the move as a new adventure.