Jennifer Linde is a senior lecturer in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and the artistic director of The Empty Space, a performance venue featuring scholarship-based work by students and faculty. She has directed and performed in numerous projects and put together civil dialogue events at The Empty Space. Her biography notes that her courses have concerned “facilitating a Civil Dialogue,” and “performance of sexuality,” among other things. Naturally, this came up for discussion when Linde, before participating in a panel on civility in American life, sat down in the green room.
What’s the most unfair thing people say about Arizona?
Politically, everything people say about it is pretty accurate. But we get painted as this cactus-ridden dry land of nothing, and that’s not what we are.
Who is your favorite Beatle?
John Lennon.
What is “performance of sexuality”?
Well, it’s a class I designed that looks as sexuality as performative. So I had students read literature that dealt with topics of sexuality and then we talked about it from a performative perspective. It was very popular. [Laughs.]
There’s a life-sized ceramic bulldog over there. [Interviewer points to ceramic dog next to a sofa.] Does it frighten you as it does me?
It’s just really horrible. Its tongue!
Is San Francisco overrated?
No. It’s beautiful.
What car do you drive?
I drive a Toyota Tundra.
What temperature makes you turn on the air conditioner?
Outside, it needs to be in the 90s.
What was your favorite performance at the Empty Space?
I did a solo performance in 2008, and I was directed by a graduate student of mine. It was personal narrative and about a personal topic and yet I did the performing. It was called the “The Night the Moon Bounced.”
What region’s food would you gladly never eat again?
Scottish food.
What is the worst thing on television?
I’m not a fan of reality television, although, quite honestly, I got really hooked on Big Brother which is horrible. I thought I was the only one watching, and then I got back in the fall and everyone on the faculty had watched it.