• Academic Profiles
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Beth Widmaier Capo, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Department of English

Education: Denison University, B.A. 1995 (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa); Pennsylvania State University, M.A. 1997; Ph.D. 2001

Courses: Major American Authors: The 19th Century Novel; Contemporary American Literature; Modern American Literature; American Women Writers; Survey of Early American Literature to 1865; Survey of American Literature 1865-present; Special Topics: Illinois Authors; Feminist Utopian Literature and Literary Theory; The Novels of William Faulkner; Principles of Writing; The American Dream: First Year Connections Seminar; Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies

Achievements: First Prize in Poetry: Jacksonville Public Library Friends of the Library contest 2004; Women’s Caucus Best Essay Award, Northeast Modern Language Association for, “Can This Marriage Be Saved?: Birth Control and Marriage in Modern American Literature” 2003, Beth Capo’s book, Textual Contraception: Birth Control and Modern American Fiction, was published by the Ohio State University Press in 2007. Awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at Doshisha University in Kyoto and Osaka University in Osaka, Japan, during the 2009-2010 academid year.

Research Interest: 20th Century American fiction; women writers; gender and women’s studies; cultural studies

Professor Beth Capo grew up in a small town in Ohio surrounded by stallions, hobbits and exotic talking creatures.

“My parents were voracious readers and our house was filled with books,” Capo says. “My mother began reading “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy to me when I was five years old and I was entranced. Another of my favorites was the Black Stallion series. I liked how books could take me places and give me experiences I wouldn’t otherwise have had. When I got into to college and realized I could get a job reading books and talking about them I knew I’d found my life’s work.”

Capo came to Illinois College in 2003 from Pennsylvania State University where she earned her Ph.D. and spent two years as a lecturer in English. Capo said she wanted to teach at a liberal arts college where the class sizes were smaller and she could discuss books rather than lecture about them.

“Reading is not a passive endeavor,” she says. “I want my students to be engaged when they’re reading. I want them to analyze the text, find out how it works and explore how they’re reacting to it. They may not like the material but as long as they can think about it critically they can get something from it. That’s how they should approach anything in life. It doesn’t matter whether they’re reading a novel or listening to a political speech. They have to figure out what it means to them and what they can do with the information.”

In addition to her literary courses, Capo teaches Principles of Writing and is a published author. She wrote the book, “Textual Contraception: Birth Control and Modern American Fiction,” which examines the reflexive relationship between aesthetic production and political activism in the American birth control movement. Her poetry also has been published, as well as several of her scholarly articles.

Capo is a firm believer that in order to write, one must read. On average, she finishes three to four books a week. This does not include the books-on-tape she might listen to while running or working out. About three hundred books line the shelves of her office—about 4,000 more line the shelves at home.

“Half of the addiction belongs to my husband,” says Capo, who is married to fellow IC English Professor Nicholas P. Capo. “He’s the only person I know who reads more than me. We spent our honeymoon in Maine visiting used book stores.”

Asking Capo to choose a favorite book or author is like asking a parent to choose a favorite child.

“It’s impossible,” she says. “I love Toni Morrison. She can write about the most painful things in such glorious language but I’m also fond of William Faulkner. I really can’t pick a favorite. That’s the joy of reading. I find somebody new all the time. You can never keep up with what’s being produced.”

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Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (excluding Holidays)

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