M. D. (Mark) Usher
How would you define yourself?
Professor, Farmer, Builder
Please describe yourself and your areas of interest.
I am a Classics professor by day and a farmer, gardener, and builder the rest of the time. I trained as a carpenter's apprentice in Germany before doing a PhD at the University of Chicago. We built our own house and outbuildings, raise sheep and Scottish Highland beef, and manage a maple sugaring operation. My research, writing, and teaching is in the areas of Antiquity and Environmental Humanities.
Why did you become a Companion of the Guild?
I read Unto This Last and The Nature of Gothic and it changed my life. To be part of an educational charity he founded in 1871 has been a priority ever since. I couldn't agree more with his reasoning for founding the Guild: "If the thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourselves about it; if possible, try for it . . . Utopianism is not our business—the work is."