{"id":139316,"date":"2023-06-27T09:05:30","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T13:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=139316"},"modified":"2023-06-27T09:42:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T13:42:33","slug":"lets-roll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2023\/06\/27\/lets-roll\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s roll"},"content":{"rendered":"

The basis for good literature is the conflict between two opposing forces. Take Megan Faragher, Ph.D., for example. As an associate professor of English<\/a> at Wright State University\u2019s Lake Campus<\/a>, Faragher knows about conflict driving a story forward.<\/p>\n

She also knows about two opposing forces as a skater on the nationally ranked Gem City Roller Derby team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s slightly less contact than in hockey,\u201d she said, explaining the body-on-body banging into the opposing team\u2019s skaters.<\/p>\n

The classroom and the skating rink are two different worlds, but Faragher has found a link that helps her as a teacher and a roller derby player.<\/p>\n

The connection between those two worlds for her began when she was pursuing her Ph.D. in English literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo about 12 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re writing a dissertation, you\u2019re pretty much by yourself,\u201d Faragher said.<\/p>\n

While seeking ways to socialize, she came upon roller derby, which is prominent there, and she joined Queen City Roller Derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started skating. It gave me an outlet and a sense of community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When she arrived at Wright State in 2014, one of the first things she did was look for the local roller derby team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Megan Faragher, an associate professor of English at Wright State\u2019s Lake Campus, is co-captain of the nationally ranked Gem City Roller Derby team.<\/p><\/div>\n

She found Gem City Roller Derby, a group of about 100 skaters comprising three teams \u2014 an internationally competitive one and two development teams. It\u2019s a women-identified sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who self-identifies as a woman can skate,\u201d Faragher said. \u201cWe have an inclusive gender policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Men are welcome to help as coaches, support staff, volunteers and referees.<\/p>\n

Roller derby is played on an oval flat track by two teams of five roller skaters, with both teams skating in the same direction. Gem City practices six to seven hours a week at a rink in Vandalia on Monday and Tuesday evenings and on Sundays.<\/p>\n

The team plays against other squads from neighboring states. The season begins in February and runs until the end of summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might go to New Jersey and New York City this summer,\u201d Faragher said, adding that the team has played as far away as South Carolina. \u201cBefore COVID, we\u2019d play 10 to 11 games a year. We\u2019re doing five this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faragher is one of the more seasoned skaters, and as such is co-captain of the traveling team, called Purple Reign, which is ranked 12th in the northeast. The two development teams are called Violet Femmes and Purple Haze.<\/p>\n

Gem City is part of the Women\u2019s Flat Track Derby Association, an international governing body that includes nearly 500 teams on six continents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not paid, so to that extent we\u2019re amateur but competitive,\u201d Faragher said, adding that professional athletes in other sports cross over to roller derby.<\/p>\n

Matches last about an hour, composed of two 30-minute halves. In those halves there are two-minute-long jams, \u201clike a play in football,\u201d Faragher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two positions, jammer and blocker,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a blocker. My goal is to help my jammer pass the other team\u2019s blockers and defend the other jammer from passing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Points are assessed for each blocker a jammer passes. \u201cSo, it\u2019s like playing offense and defense at the same time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It is in putting this strategy into practice that Faragher sees a connection to teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s how well you can communicate as a defender, as a blocker, where your teammates need to be. It involves the skills I have to hone as a teacher \u2014 the classroom element is all about communication,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As a co-captain, Faragher is involved in training her teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of training is teaching how to skate and the physical applications unique to our sport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From left: Gem City Roller Derby members Lindsay “Lethal Lynz” Lee, Danielle “Beast” Tarbert, Hannah “Danger” Benston and Megan “Lexical Dexterity” Faragher.<\/p><\/div>\n

In a sense it is like teaching students how to write, said Faragher, who teaches writing and composition at Lake Campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started doing this sport, I liked the competition, staying in shape and being around cool people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But Faragher said over the past 10 years she recognized that there is a mutual benefit, namely teaching skaters, who come from different walks of life, and teaching students, who come from different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has helped me connect to students,\u201d Faragher said.<\/p>\n

Some of her fellow faculty members have come to watch Purple Reign games, whose roster includes several Wright State faculty and alumni.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an extension of the Wright State community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Megan Faragher, an associate professor of English at Wright State\u2019s Lake Campus, is co-captain of the nationally ranked Gem City Roller Derby team. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":139356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2023,4300,725,727,4863,731,747,715,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-faculty","category-faculty-profile","category-home-news-sidebar","category-homepage-photos-and-video","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-lake-campus","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139316"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139347,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139316\/revisions\/139347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}