I first met Elaine Freedgood seven years ago, when she sent an abstract to me after her friend and colleague, Toral Gajarawala, came across a call for papers I had posted for an MLA session on fictional worlds. Since then, I've been just one of many people who have received tremendous behind-the-scenes support from Elaine, and I want to take some time to reflect on this profound but largely invisible way in which she has contributed to the profession. At the same time that Elaine has forged lifelong friendships with her students, continuing to support them long after they have moved on to new institutions and new stages of life, she has also cultivated close relationships with countless PhD candidates, job-seekers, and junior faculty members who never had a chance to pass through her classroom. What makes these relationships so special is precisely their unofficial, noninstitutional nature—in much the same way that it can be so important and life-changing for teenagers to have a “cool” adult in their lives who is not one of their parents.

中文翻译：

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人文学科中的人

我第一次见到 Elaine Freedgood 是在 7 年前，当时她的朋友兼同事 Toral Gajarawala 收到我为关于虚构世界的 MLA 会议发布的论文征集请求，她给我发了一份摘要。从那时起，我只是从 Elaine 获得巨大幕后支持的众多人中的一员，我想花一些时间来反思她为这个行业做出的这种深刻但基本上不为人知的方式。在与学生结下终生友谊的同时，在学生们进入新的机构和新的人生阶段后，她仍继续为他们提供支持，她也与无数的博士生、求职者和大三学生建立了密切的关系。从未有机会通过她的教室的教职员工。