I studied history at university, so I'm always quite fascinated by the Second World War and France. That's one of my interests.
Social progress is a big thing for me. Although science fiction is traditionally concerned with the hard sciences, which is chemistry, physics, and, some might argue, biology, my father was and still is a social scientist at the University of Toronto.
Right after graduation, I married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, an academic administrator. I spent the next ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., raising our children, Christopher, Tom, and Lucy.
But I majored in Drama, modified with Psychology.
I graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Communications and left formal education behind.
I'm a professor of comparative literature, among other things, so I'm able to read in a couple of other languages, and I understand that not everyone is, not everyone can, although it is quite stunning how many people do read Spanish in the United States, but moving between languages is also extremely helpful.
I went to NYU for a year and a half, and I graduated from there and then years later went to Columbia for graduate school.
I was a physical education major with a child psychology minor at Temple, which means if you ask me a question about a child's behavior, I will advise you to tell the child to take a lap.
I went to a lovely school, and I got an incredible education. And I actually think that my education is what really sets me apart, 'cause I'm very smart.
I majored in English with a specialization in creative writing along with Asian American Studies.
I remember being in strong physics, physiology and biology classes.
I have a degree in music, yeah, from the University of Montana. I studied voice and composition and conducting and all that.
From the ages of five to twelve, I attended the Saint Laurence O'Toole elementary school in Lawrence, a city next to Methuen, and was taught by sisters of the Catholic order of Notre Dame de Namour. I enjoyed all my subjects there. I do not remember ever learning any science, except for mathematics.
My own interest in basic aspects of electron transfer between metal complexes became active only after I came to the University of Chicago in 1946.
I read good. I was an English major.
I had higher math SATs than in English - yet I became an English major in college.
We didn't grow up in a jock household. In fact, my dad is an entrepreneur. He was a computer programmer; he was a professor of actuarial science at Wharton for 13 years, then started his own company that was software-based.
I have three degrees in history and only one in law, but since I came back to specialize in constitutional law where history is so essentially a part and an explanation of much that exists, the two disciplines blended very well.
I went to Catholic school throughout my whole academic life. In fact, my children - my husband and I and our children in my own family now have over 100 years of Catholic education among us.
I went to a liberal arts college, and as part of my background, I was majoring in mathematics and physics.
I always knew I wanted an educational background, and my mum and dad were quite big on that.
I was born in 1943 at Neston in the Wirral, not far from Liverpool where my father, Richard William Hunt was a lecturer in paleography, the study of mediaeval manuscripts.
My mind was formed by studying philosophy, Plato and that sort of thing.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in English, which means I had a lot of formal training in reading.
I went to Oxford University - but I've never let that hold me back.
