Part activist, part administrator, and part academic,” Anna Sims Bartel earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Cornell University. She runs her own consulting firm and enjoys doing public humanities work as well helps drive the development of community-engagement centers in higher ed. She is someone who became a fast friend of mine when I moved to Ithaca in July 2023. Anna enjoys the things that support chronic hope: the chaos of her young family; being in, on, or near moving water; the smell of dirt and the good things that grow in it. Pick up “The Scholar as Human” which Anna co-edited with Debra A. Castillo too.

Listen to the episode here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anna-bartel-phd/id1640874891?i=1000631256764

When I told Anna how confused I was by fall bird migration because I am now in the North, she wrote me a poem:

Where the birds are leaving from

by Anna Bartel, written for Christy Hyman on 9/1/2023

She says it’s a learning curve, 

For her, doing migration season 

Where the birds

Are leaving from.

She has always lived where they are going

Or at least at way-stations.

Where we stand shapes 

What’s departure and what’s return.

They say home is the place 

You don’t need to keep escaping

Though escape is in my bones.

But I am also used to being left.

I need to practice in the spring, then,

Flinging my arms open

To receive what arrives

Flocks passing overhead,

Small solitary warbler in the scrub.

I need to remember: my wiring

Is not definitive, nor determines

Meaning of all this movement.

I think of her, down south,

Turned to birds in grief,

A million feathered reasons to live,

Her face turned skyward to welcome home

Those who have left us here.

If you need her consulting services for your organization or university center- go to the link below

Anna Sims Bartel, PhD