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ProfileKathryn Hall, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
A 1981 Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate with a passion for medieval literature, Kathryn Hall was ready for a new challenge after 14 years as an English faculty member at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids. She took a job about three years ago as an academic advisor in the University of Iowa Academic Advising Center. Now, in a new role as an assistant to the associate deans in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Hall is doing what she loves best—writing and problem-solving. What are you doing in your new job? This started as an interdepartmental internship where you try the job for a semester. I think the match is good. I work with the Educational Policy Committee, the Faculty Assembly, and the General Education Curriculum Committee. I do a lot of writing, which I’m enjoying. Also, I do whatever the deans need, including special projects and solving problems. I enjoy that. When things don’t work as well as they could, it’s an opportunity to make change for the better. If you could change anything about your job, what would it be? They already changed my office furniture, which is fabulous, so what can I say? It’s perfect. Tell us about your former life as an English professor. After I graduated from high school in Santa Cruz, Calif., I volunteered in an alternative high school teaching creative writing. The class made a difference to them and to me. I realized that’s what I wanted to do—work with students. My academic interests always have been clearly situated in the Middle Ages. But as a writer, I tend toward the contemporary. Early on, my mentor said, “You’ll never get a job if you’re a creative writer and you have a specialty in medieval literature.” It just happened that at the same time, the chair of the English department at Mount Mercy was writing this ad that said, “Wanted: creative writer with a specialty in medieval literature.” He [the chair] told me that people on the committee told him there’d be no one out there who’d apply. As a professor, not a semester went by that I wasn’t astounded by the things the students knew. They were very charming and funny. I taught classes on Shakespeare, on Chaucer, and in creative writing. I also did a great deal of administrative work, especially when I served as departmental chair. At a certain point, I felt like I was very comfortable and I wanted to learn new things, so I took some time off and did freelance. But I love working with students. I had so much fun in the UI Academic Advising Center—the advisors there are passionate about their work, and I miss them all.This is the first job I’ve had where I haven’t worked directly with students. What was the most unexpected thing that happened to you at work? When you teach, you always expect the unexpected. Someone I took a class from told me you never can be totally prepared to teach. He said, “But when the time comes, you go out and do your best.” And you can never be prepared for the questions students ask you. That’s why it’s so much fun. So how do you keep up with your interests in creative writing and medieval literature now that you’re not teaching? I try to publish my poetry. Other than that, I love to read. Right now I’m reading a book on medieval technology, which is really great. A liberal arts education changes who you are, and I think my studies have done that. I also belong to a writing group in Iowa City. We’ve been meeting for 20-some years, and we’re good friends. For a while, the group acted as a screener for a literary magazine, but we’re giving that up. We’re too busy! When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a pioneer. I mean an American pioneer who crossed the prairie. Apparently, I was born in the wrong century. by Madelaine Jerousek-Smith Past Profiles
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