Often, students think that professors do not work hard. Some might think they have no life other than grading papers and tests.

Dr. Cynthia Lucia, however, a first year English professor at Rider, is one of many teachers who scramble between teaching and outside work. When she is not in the classroom she is co-editor of Cineaste, a magazine devoted mainly to the art and politics of film.

“I became a professor because I studied film and I got my doctorate. I really love the subject and would love to get students as excited about it as I am,” Lucia said. “I really care about teaching. In a way Rider is the best of both worlds because I can do my research and my own writing, but I can also spend time thinking about how to teach and be in an atmosphere where people respect that.”

Finding time to prepare classes and do scholarly writing is difficult to balance, Lucia said, but it’s certainly worth making time for.

“I guess I don’t sleep a lot. We meet on Sundays when none of us are working at our other jobs,” she said. “What we do is we write, we edit and we contact authors about writing for us, all in between the work we are doing.”

On top of working on Cineaste, Lucia is in the middle of writing a book called Women on Trial: Female Lawyers in the Hollywood Courtroom of the 1980s and the 1990s.

“There were about two to four films in which female lawyers were the protagonists. It became clear to me that it’s because law itself is such a masculine area, in the sense that laws, at least in this country, were created by men,” she said. “What’s interesting about these movies is that on the surface they seem to be feminist because they’re about female lawyers, but ultimately they are not really feminist at all and some of them can almost be seen as anti-feminist.”

Lucia, who commutes every day from New York City, taught for 10 years at New York University (NYU) and also at Yeshiva University as an adjunct for three years, before joining Rider’s staff.

Born and raised in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Lucia said that she was interested in studying English and literature.

“I went to college in western Pennsylvania at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I went to graduate school at NYU. I went there because I wanted to move to New York, so I’ve been there ever since,” she said.

After graduating as an English major from Indiana University of Penn., Lucia said she switched her focus to film before entering graduate school at NYU.
“I loved literature. I loved narrative. I got a master’s degree in English and literature,” she said. “Well, I’ve always loved movies, and I thought studying film was fun because I could talk to people about films who are not necessarily studying it.”

Her plans for the future go even beyond writing a book, she added.

“I would like to be able to create new courses in film that move beyond the introductory courses,” she said. “I would love to get involved in the gender studies program and, at some point, have a student organization devoted to going to see films in New York City.”

Lucia said that she enjoys working at Rider because it is a pleasant experience.

“I’ve only been at Rider now for a little over a month and I really like being here,” she said. “I think my colleagues have been really welcoming and the students are terrific, they are so nice and fun to talk with and be in class with. So far Rider is living up to my expectations.”