Vanderbilt’s residential college experience is a special aspect of student life at the university, one that’s rooted in authentic connection and engagement. Undergraduate houses and colleges are led by faculty who live with their families and pets in special suites within the residence halls and lead programming to create another vibrant layer of learning and community. Meet the university’s newest faculty heads of house and heads of college in this special series.
Justin Quarry, principal senior lecturer in the Department of English, is faculty head of East House on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons.
Quarry, who earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt in 2003, specializes in fiction and nonfiction writing. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, the New York Daily News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Salon and Longreads. His fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The Southern Review, New England Review, Alaska Quarterly Review and The Normal School, which awarded him its Normal Prize in Fiction.
Name: Justin Quarry
Residential College: East House
Years at Vanderbilt: 20 (15 as faculty, one as staff, four as an undergraduate)
Hometown: Jonesboro, Arkansas
Favorite song: Spotify might report “Walking on Broken Glass” by Annie Lennox; I’ll say “High and Dry” by Radiohead.
Favorite book: Maybe not absolute favorites, but my touchstones as a writer and someone who longs for meaningful connection are Carson McCullers’ novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Truman Capote’s short story “A Christmas Memory.”
Favorite food: Fried chicken and fried catfish—though they’re only Very Special Guest Stars on my plate.
Favorite spot on campus: Newly, the sunroom in my faculty apartment, where I’ll be hosting East’s salons. I’ve wanted such a space since I first played Clue (the conservatory!) and read the X-men comics (Storm’s attic greenhouse!) as a kid. Now I finally have one, and I look forward to sharing it with students, colleagues and friends.
What are you most looking forward to for the upcoming academic year? Having my first-year faculty head experience alongside my residents having their first-year college experience. Also, giving my dear dog, Malcolm, the utter joys of twice-daily walks on campus and introductions to many, many potential new friends.
Why did you want to be a faculty head of house? I learn from students, and I enjoy talking with them not just about what they’re reading and writing, but also their lives—their backgrounds, their hopes, their ambitions, their ideas, their interests. I imagine serving as faculty head will allow for many more of the latter conversations. As well, I gravitate toward highly unique experiences, and this is certainly one of them.
What advice do you have for students coming to campus? If you are a first-generation college student like I was, enroll in First View and get involved with FirstVU. Making the leap to an elite university like Vanderbilt is of course laudable and thrilling, but it can also be disorienting. Guidance and community in navigating all the complexities and many opportunities of college will help you get the most you can out of your time here.
Tell us a funny or poignant experience you’ve had at Vanderbilt? The year after I graduated from Vanderbilt, I worked on staff in the slide library for History of Art and Architecture—where I’d worked four years as a work-study student— while I applied to graduate programs in creative writing. I’d intended to accept the offer of my top choice of those that admitted me without visiting its campus, because I simply couldn’t afford to do so. But when my boss, Joanne Rathman, who by then was a good friend (and remains one still), found that out, she insisted I go and paid for my trip. That act of financial generosity from someone who is not my family continues to move and astound me.
What do you love about working at Vanderbilt? Continual exposure to people with origins, curiosities and areas of expertise often radically different from my own, which gives me a deeper understanding of the world and in turn myself and inspires my art. But also, the trees—I get to work in an arboretum. Wow!
