About the author

Robert V. Dodge

Robert V. Dodge, born and raised in North Dakota, holds a master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a master’s in Education, and has done extensive graduate work in history and law. He has published numerous books and articles. His latest include three with Algora Publishing, Catherine Cater: An Elegant Rise Above Race and Gender as Scholar and Professor (2016),  Andrea and Sylvester: Challenging Marriage Taboos and Paving the Road to Same-Sex Marriage (2015), and Which Chosen People? Manifest Destiny Meets the Sioux, As Seen by Frank Fiske, Frontier Photographer (2013). Bob taught social studies and Advanced Placement history in North Dakota, in London and for many years in Singapore; he now lives in Denver. Bob was once an ace on the tennis court but he says that, too, is history.

Catherine Cater

An Elegant Rise Above Race and Gender as Scholar and Professor

Price range: $21.95 through $31.95

Catherine Cater was born in New Orleans and spent her youth in Alabama. Diverse influences, from exposure to the Ku Klux Klan to immersion in Great Books, came together in the creation of this enigma who was a great lady.

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Sound Bite

Catherine Cater's infectious love of ideas inspired students, colleagues and friends. A distinguished teacher and intellectual specializing in English literature and philosophy, Dr. Cater faced barriers of race and gender when she entered the academic world and moved to the North. She elevated the level of scholarship at universities and their communities in both the South and North, most notably North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, where her long career left an indelible mark on the academic stature of the institution.

About the Book

Catherine Cater was born in New Orleans and spent her youth in Alabama. Diverse influences, from exposure to the Ku Klux Klan to immersion in Great Books, came together in the creation of this enigma who was a great lady. She popped up in North Dakota as a complete outsider, yet her dynamism naturally drew people to her. English literature and philosophy were her primary scholarly areas but her curiosity knew no bounds.� The telling of the story may appear unusual or uneven due to the author's relationship with the subject of this book. The author was Catherine Cater's student over 50 years ago and remained her friend from that time onward. In telling her story, he has blended first-person recollection with third-person narration based on research and interviews. The memories of personal encounters with this sparkling woman bring her to life as the real person she was and help to show why she is so highly regarded by those who benefited from having been in her presence.

About the Book

Catherine Cater lived nearly a century — from 1917 to 2015 — and spent much of that time quietly transforming the academic world around her. Born in New Orleans and raised in Alabama during the Jim Crow era, she navigated a childhood shaped by both the threat of the Ku Klux Klan and an early, deep love of literature and ideas. As a woman of mixed-race heritage entering higher education in mid-20th century America, she faced formidable barriers of both race and gender at every turn.

What makes her story remarkable is where she ended up: North Dakota State University in Fargo, about as far from the Deep South as imaginable, where she became one of the most beloved and influential faculty members the institution has ever known. Specializing in English literature and philosophy, she earned a reputation as an electrifying teacher whose curiosity was genuinely boundless — students and colleagues compared her to Yoda for the wisdom she dispensed so naturally.

Author Robert V. Dodge was himself one of her students more than fifty years ago and remained her friend until her death. That personal connection gives this biography an unusual warmth. Dodge draws on archival materials from both North Dakota State University and Fisk University, as well as interviews with people who knew her, blending first-person memory with careful research. The result is a portrait of a woman who refused to be defined by the limitations her era tried to place on her, and who left an indelible mark on everyone she taught.

Additional information

Weight N/A
Book Type Ebook, ePub, Hard cover, Soft cover
Pages

180

Release Year

BISAC I

BIO019000 Biography & Autobiography / Educators

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