Aces of Trades: Amanda Adams left Indiana Jones behind to become an educator

NEW CONCORD – Teaching is in the family.

“I was a kid who loved stories, especially about the past, and language,” recalled Amanda Adams. “I loved to read and to write. I went through a few stages of what I wanted to be first an archeologist because I wanted to be Indiana Jones. Then I wanted to be a lawyer for a while. In high school I already wanted to be a professor so I could spend my time learning new things, reading, writing, and getting students excited about what I loved.”

Today, Adams is an associate professor of English and chair of the English department at Muskingum University.

“My parents were both professors and I knew what that life looked like,” she said. “They were so passionate about their subjects, loved teaching, and also liked that they were in charge of their own time. Professors teach at certain times, of course, but outside of that, they’re expected to take responsibility for preparing, researching, and writing on their own. They both were able to succeed at doing that and be home for us getting off the bus, too. It was an early version of a flexible work schedule that’s more popular now and I loved having both my parents around a lot of the time.”

Adams grew up in Hudson, Ohio, graduated from Hudson High School in 1995, Miami University with a degree in English and history, the University of Pennsylvania with a master’s in English literature, then the University of Oregon for a Ph.D. in English.

“I worked briefly as a copy editor and for several years as a barista,” she said. “But really, I was always heading toward finishing my doctorate and getting a teaching job.”

Adams started at Muskingum in 2010.

“After I finished graduate school,” she said, “I was looking for a permanent job teaching at the college level, and I saw this position advertised. I was thrilled to come home to Ohio to do what I love and also get to be close to my family.”

Karen Dunak is professor and Arthur G. & Eloise Barnes Cole chair of American history at Muskingum.

“Amanda is a top-notch scholar and educator,” assessed Dunak. “She finds unique and inspiring ways to integrate her scholarly interests into her course topics, such as gender and comedy and animals and the environment in literature and film. Amanda is a wonderful colleague, and one of my favorite people to talk with about not only teaching, but also research and writing.”

“I’m passionate about novels and poems and films," Adams responded. "I’m also passionate about what an education in English, or any of the humanities, gives students – critical thinking skills, communication skills, empathy, and the ability to see complexity and nuance in people and ideas.”

“I just love being around young people and seeing how generations of students change with the times,” she added. “That keeps it interesting.

“If I didn’t have this job,” she concluded, “I’d be stopping people on the street to tell them about a great book or an important historical event and how it’s relevant to our lives. So it’s probably a good thing for the community I’m able to do that inside a classroom. I love my job.”

For more information about Muskingum University, log on www.muskingum.edu.

Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at trnews@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Aces of Trades: Amanda Adams left Indiana Jones behind to become an educator