Dr. Simon Workman is a literature enthusiast. Quiet by nature, but his passion for talking about different poets to his favorite Victorian literature excites furious laughter and joyful insights.
After being homeschooled from the second grade throughout high school, Workman attended Wright State University before eventually making the financial decision to come to Sinclair College in 2006.
By 2008 he had earned two associate degrees in English and liberal arts, which he admits the latter came somewhat as a bonus for having collected so many credit hours, and that he was also unsure of what he wanted to do in the first place.
“I just had so many extra credit hours that they were like, ‘Here, here’s a free liberal arts degree too, while we’re at it.’ and I didn’t know what I wanted to major in when I started, I was kind of thinking maybe something music related,” Workman said.
He cites his experiences with English professors at both Wright State and Sinclair for piquing his interest in a career.
Workman returned to Wright State after Sinclair and earned his master’s degree in English. From there he went on to obtain his PhD from the University of Cincinnati.
At the same time he was earning his PhD in 2013, Workman started teaching off and on at Sinclair in 2013, by 2017 he was also teaching at UC. In 2023, a position for an annually contracted faculty (ACF) opened up, an opportunity that Workman didn’t hesitate to jump on.
With over a decade of teaching experience firmly under his belt, Workman has seen the shift in education firsthand. Now with technology such as AI and online learning, the landscape is shifting once again.
Like many professors, Workman has to find a way to add a personal touch to online learning classes to fill the gap of missing the in-person interaction. A challenge that is not always easily done.
“It is challenging to make that personal connection. That’s kind of one of the main things that is not necessarily missing, but not quite as robust in an online class, is that personal connection with each student. Part of how I try to forge that connection is by leaving good, personalized feedback,” Workman said.
Although Workman finds it different, he does appreciate the advantages to online learning.
“I like it. I think it’s really convenient for students who can’t make it to campus, or have a lot of, you know, life stuff going on, jobs, kids, that sort of thing,” Workman said, “It gives them that flexibility to still be able to get a lot out of the course, but kind of more on their time scale.”
A more troubling problem is the newer and rapidly spreading technology, AI. For this, Workman’s feelings are also mixed. He notes that it is overly tempting for students to use it and has caught it before, although he is sure some has gotten by.
“There is research that says people are not as good as at detecting it as they think they are, but like, still, you notice when it’s very obvious. Freshmen are not at the stage in using it where they can do it in a sophisticated way to get past the BS detector,” Workman said.
Moving on from technology, Workman began discussing one of his favorite subjects to teach: Literature. He spoke about his love for Victorian literature, even doing his dissertation for his PhD on Sherlock Holmes.
While there is plenty of passion and love for literature, there can also be a lot of controversy. Historical media can often appear bigoted or offensive for content that was once acceptable.
However, Workman doesn’t shy away from these hard conversations and topics, rather he thinks discussing them is the most important part of understanding such subjects.
“Just because we don’t like it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to do away with it,” Workman said, “We can try to figure out, you know, let’s maybe look at this from our modern perspective and try to understand at the time, why was this acceptable, and what can we learn from that today?”
Although Workman is an academic by nature, he does enjoy his life outside of school. He enjoys spending his free time with his family, reading, playing different instruments, collecting vinyl and CDs, going to different coffee shops and playing with their dog.
Now that his son is old enough to enjoy them as well, Workman says that he has revitalize one of old hobbies, Legos. They often build various projects together, some of which currently adorn his office.
Workman’s passion for literature and love for teaching are apparent from the way he talks about experiences with different classes and coworkers at Sinclair. He left students that may be interested in a job as an educator with some advice.
“If you’re going to do it like as you want to become a full professor, you got to more or less get your PhD these days,” Workman said, “But it’s extremely rewarding in the end, not just the, you know, reading and literature in general, but like when you actually get in the classroom and you have those good discussions, that’s, that’s what makes it worth it.”
Noah Schlarman, executive editor
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