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"I start by telling my students: 'You are historians. You have to think like historians,' " says Marjorie Wheeler-Barclay, associate professor of history. Understanding the motivations of people in the past is key, she believes. "There are ways you can relate to figures in history on a human level and, by extension, understand those you live with today." Wheeler-Barclay teaches medieval and modern European history and encourages students to develop their own theories about why historical events occurred. Her goal is to instill "a real desire to go beyond the generalizations about the past that we all have. I especially want to get my students beyond the idea that history has been a linear progression from barbarism to civilization. It's much more complicated than that. "History is ideal for anyone who likes to hear stories but who is also interested in people," she advises. "History tells stories about real people, what they did, and how and why they did it. That's fun to me." Wheeler-Barclay has received the College's Gillie A. Larew Award for Distinguished Teaching, and she has been praised as a teacher and advisor whose students view her as a role model. In the words of one, she is adept at bringing students "from knowledge to understanding." She has a B.A. from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Keen students of history acquire a broader perspective on life, Wheeler-Barclay maintains. "History is an excellent preparation for understanding why the world is the way it is today, and students realize that if you know nothing about history, you're kind of naive and don't have the depth of an educated person." Majoring in history is also underrated as a route to a career, she says. She has cheered on many of her students as they carved out careers in corporations, the law, or in government, particularly in foreign relations or the military. Others have gone into teaching and even historic preservation. "I'm always telling students that history is good preparation for a job," she says. "As in the workplace, you have to gather information, analyze it, develop an account of how a situation occurred, and present your findings."
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John d'Entremont
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Bradley Geisert
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For Brad Geisert, a small, liberal arts college is the perfect place to share his love of Asian history and culture. "Half of good teaching is loving the material," he said. "It's neat to be paid do something you like." When confronted with the question of why students should study Asia, he responded, "A liberal arts education is supposed to teach one about what it is to be human in the broadest sense of the word. If a person doesn't know anything about a culture other than her own, it's hard for her to know what is universal and what is particular to her own civilization. East Asia's large population, its diversity, as well as the length of its history make it rich in human experience." In addition to Japan and China, Geisert is adding more Korean exposure to his courses. He participated in the Institute on Korean Culture and Society in 2004, which provided coursework and travel and focused on Korean culture and history. Geisert's interest in Korea centers not only on elements of Korean cultural autonomy, but also on the ways in which Korea influenced Japanese culture, and Japan and China influenced Korea. A Bridgewater College graduate, Geisert received his master's degree and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia. He taught at Sweet Briar College, the University of Virginia, Harvard University and Northwest Missouri State University before coming to Randolph College/ Randolph Macon Women's College in 1987. Geisert is the author of a number of publications including "Radicalism and Its Demise: The Chinese Nationalist Party, Factionalism, and Local Elites in Jiangsu Province." This book was published by the Center for Chinese Studies of the University of Michigan in the series "Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies." He has also conducted research on the Chinese leader, Chiang Kai-shek. His interests outside of East Asian studies include works on the quest for the historical Jesus and other aspects of early Christianity.
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When I applied for a teaching position at R-MWC, I had never heard of the College. I knew I wanted to teach at a small school, but I had no idea how much I would fall in love with this campus, its students, and its emphasis on academics. This place is more than a job for me. There is something special here that makes you feel at home. We're able to do so much more in class because of the College's small size. My classes give me the opportunity to help students understand their world and the importance of history. I teach courses on general 20th century European history, German history and Russian history as well as seminars such as "Propaganda" and "Women and the Two World Wars." I also teach a course entitled "Paris and Berlin in the 1920s: A Cultural History." This class, inspired by my own scholarly research on the evolution of a consumer culture in Germany during the 1920s, explores the unprecedented explosion of artistic creativity that emerged from the cafes, cabarets, and studios of Paris and Berlin. Like most of the professors here, I try to bring my classroom alive for students. You can't learn everything from just one textbook. Since I love movies, I integrate films into all of my classes. I also assign novels, memoirs, and biographies and utilize images to provide a visual context for many of the topics discussed in my courses. But most importantly, we talk. One of my favorite parts about the College is the diversity. There are so many international students here and in my classes. When I am teaching about various events, it is amazing to have students from places like Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Nepal, Argentina, Jamaica, and Romania sharing their and their families' stories. These different perspectives add so much to the class. I, along with Linda Thomas and Lea Tesarova in the German Studies Department, have also taken students to Prague and Berlin as part of a course entitled, "Coming to Terms with the Past." While on this trip, we visited many important historical sites and museums that deal with the imperial, Nazi and communist pasts and met many eyewitnesses to history including a Holocaust survivor, a Czech pilot who fought against Nazi Germany in World War II, and a former East German prisoner. I also frequently take field trips to Washington, D.C. to visit museums such as the National Gallery and the Holocaust Museum. My goal is to take students on a summer trip to Germany and Poland in the next few years. My current research involves assembling and editing a collection of primary documents of the cultural history of Paris and Berlin during the 1920s. I worked on this project with a R-MWC student during the summer of 2005 as part of the Summer Research Program as well as during my sabbatical. The book is to be published by Greenwood Press. When I'm not teaching, you are most likely to find me traveling. My wife, Carolyn, and I love to visit art museums, buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, presidential sites, movie palaces, and classic diners. We also like to check out weird attractions such as the World's Largest Bull or the World's Largest Badger. We've even seen the World's Largest Talking Cow, which rests beside the World's Largest Replica Cheese in Neillsville, Wisconsin. We hope to hit a few more presidential sites and unique roadside attractions this year.
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Klawa Thresher
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