Our professors and how they relate

I was assigned to Dr. Souder and was looking at Hugh Burns and the Dadalus Group in particular, while Autumn researched Dr. Greer and Dawn researched Dr. Keating. I learned lots of fascinating facts about Dr. Burns and his work and gained a better sense of the Dadalus group and the relationships with Dr. Kinneavy. It seemed that Dr. Keating and Dr. Greer have had more direct influence on Dr. Souder, as each has chaired her separate dissertation work in English and Women's Studies (which I believe is still in progress). Bakhtin seems to be the philosopher who has impacted Dr. Souder the most,as she referred to him as her philosopher king once in class and he was the subject of her dissertation, along with a English female poet named Felicia Hemans. The influences of Boothe, Plato and Aristotle seem to impact Kinneavy, Burns and Greer. I am not sure about Keating.

Burns' recognition by UNESCO and his statements about the people he met in Saudia Arabia, when doing work for his Fulbright, reminded me of the philosophical stance of Perelman and the Dali Lama,regarding "responsibility not rights" and "our enemies being our friends". Dr. Burns said "Even in a strange land there are no strangers." He also talked about how to truly belong and making that land your land--somewhat like a recoginition of the otherness Perelman was concerned with in his work at UNESCO. Dr. Souder's interests, as reflected in her publications,reveals a wide range of interests. I do get the sense that Aristotle's work has influenced her beliefs about argumentation. But Dr. Burn's openness to new ideas and other people is what knocks me out and I believe is Dr. Souder's outlook as well, especially considering her role in the study abroad program.

In considering the other professor's influences, we really are a Marxist looking department and it seemed that Norm Chomsky was more of a presence for several of the professors. The creative writing teacher's ties to Elbow and others bore a striking separateness from the other professors, which disturbed me, as I would like to see more connectedness between creative writing and the rest of the department.

I really liked the ties I saw between Trujillo and Souder. I was not quite sure how our chairman's influences fit so much in with the rest to the staff. There are a lot of philosophers and educators whose work I have not really explored yet, so I know that I have a lot to do work yet in this regard.

And I thought that our board was very successful, as it was attractive, and had a definite story to tell!