• Email: amy.braziller@rrcc.edu
• Phone: 303.914.6212
• Office # 2633
• Education:
  • M.A. New York University, New York, NY 1993
    • Thesis: "The Relocated Self: Objectification and Disassociation in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie."
    • Concentration: 19th & 20th Century American Literature
  • B.A. Empire State College, NY 1990
• Amy's Teaching Philosophy
• Amy's Blog

Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in the burbs 40 minutes from New York City, I grew up hating malls and wishing for the day I could release myself from the oppression of the suburbs. After a short stint at Oberlin College, I decided college was not for me and packed my books and moved to the East Village of New York City (1st and 1st) for a chance to play rock 'n roll. With some blue and green in my hair, I grabbed a bass guitar and became one of the four members of an all women's new wave thrash band. Weekends were spent playing in such clubs as CBGBs and opening for such acts as The Clash, The Dead Kennedys, and Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark. After 7 years of playing music (and supporting myself in the graphic arts industry), I returned to college. My undergraduate years (which lasted from age 18 to age 30) consisted of English courses at Oberlin College, history courses at New York University, poetry workshops with Audre Lorde at Hunter College, and individualized English study at Empire State College.

Following my B.A. in English, I enrolled in New York University and completed an M.A. in English, with an emphasis in 19th and 20th century American Literature. With a degree in hand, I began teaching part-time at various colleges in the New York area. Wishing for a change from the grey Eastern skies, I loaded up my car and headed west for the blue skies of Denver. I have been teaching full time in the English Department at Red Rocks Community College since 1998.

When not teaching (or sometimes when teaching)

• I have a weakness for my grandfather's stories of bookie days spent watching horse races, winning numbers, beating odds.
• I have a weakness for Buddhist lines that silence my incessant thoughts.
• I have a weakness for movies about dysfunctional families, artistic landscapes, and obscure themes.
• I have a weakness for rainy mornings spent under a down quilt.
• I have a weakness for watching people and staring into space.
• I have a weakness for imagining a journey before it's begun.
• I have a weakness for supermarkets, produce sections, and organic foods.
• I have a weakness for journals with cool covers promising pages of writing.
• I have a weakness for my cats defying rules, watching them walk atop tables, smiling, knowing they should get off. I sometimes tell them nothing.
• I have a weakness for a soft voice humming to a piano.
• I have a weakness for changing my mind at the last moment.

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