This spring, Professor of English Dr. Jane Archer retires after 39 years on the Hilltop. Archer taught introductory English and fiction courses as well as courses in her expertise, which includes contemporary American and international fiction. English alumna Hope Tucker Lyle ’20 wrote a reflection on Archer’s influence at Birmingham-Southern and her love for telling stories.

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One of my favorite non-fiction essayists, Joan Didion, once named an essay collection “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live.” If there was one professor I had as a BSC English major who truly embodied this statement, it was Jane Archer.

The Oshkosh, Wisconsin-raised daughter of a public library director and a children’s book author, it seemed only natural that she would have an inbuilt desire to share the power of stories wherever life took her. But as is typical of Jane Archer, the one-of-a-kind gem that she is, she blazed her own path. After getting a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and going on to earn her Ph.D. from State University of New York at Buffalo, Dr. Archer made her way down South to the Hilltop in 1982, where she faithfully served for nearly four decades of English students until her May 2021 retirement.

The first class that I took with Dr. Archer was Contemporary Fiction, and from the moment I saw the required reading list, I was hooked. I had just fully committed to the English major, was still in the process of finding my “sea legs,” and was a bit overwhelmed because I didn’t quite feel like I fit the preconceived mold of what an English major should be. But when I opened my syllabus and saw an array of intriguing titles by authors like Toni Morrison, Yaa Gyasi, Art Spiegelman, and Michael Chabon, I instantly knew that the class would be different from anything I’d ever experienced. Here was a professor who prized the unconventional and colorful, who didn’t shy away from breaking tradition and showcasing voices that didn’t fit the mold.

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Dr. Archer valued the story over the name of the person telling it. Adopting that mindset from her gave me the confidence to be bold in my own storytelling. More importantly, it also showed me the importance of doing my part to uplift the stories of others.

In everything she did, Dr. Archer added to her own story by enriching the stories of other people’s lives. She spent her days on campus regaling her students with anecdotes about the mischief and magic of life, supporting the BSC Women’s Volleyball team as faculty liaison and making sure they always had a vocal fan in the stands, and encouraging storytelling through words and art as faculty sponsor of QUAD Literary Arts Magazine. Off campus, she set an example for students and colleagues alike by boldly standing up for gender and racial equality in the Birmingham community so that every voice can be heard and every story told.

When Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” she was talking about how storytelling and making connections helps us to process grief and hard times by “select[ing] the most workable of the multiple choices.” When Jane Archer told us stories, she took it a step further by making the stories come alive and infusing every situation, whether joyful or tragic, with a prevailing sense of hope. The BSC chapters of The Legend of Jane Archer have come to a close, but her Hilltop legacy lives on and her story continues to unfold. I’m sure I’m not the only former student of hers who is excited to keep reading.