Muskingum News

Muskingum University Associate Professor of English Dr. Amanda Adams enjoys teaching a variety of courses which attract English majors as well as students from disciplines across the campus.

“I’m so proud to be a member of Muskingum’s English Department, where we help students build their skills in communication, critical and agile thinking, and other areas that are crucial to their future career success,” she said. “We help students gain cultural competency – the ability to understand the world around them and speak about it in knowledgeable ways.”

“I typically teach American Literature Survey courses, a nineteenth century American fiction course, which is my area of specialty, and topics courses. This semester’s topics course is on animals and literature. We are taking an interdisciplinary look at animals in literature and film as well as animal and human relationships. Students from multiple majors are enrolled, bringing their unique perspectives to class discussions.”

Dr. Adams is currently focusing her research work on the exercise lives of nineteenth century British and American women, exploring fiction and nonfiction literature around walking and exercise by women writers of the time. “We as a society often have the image that nineteenth-century women were less active than women of today,” she noted. “In reality, middle class and wealthy women walked for exercise and working class women walked to their work and often as part of their work. Some authors also wrote about other ways of exercise, such as Louisa May Alcott, who detailed her morning runs in her private journals.”

In addition to her teaching and research, Dr. Adams also serves as Muskingum’s Director of Assessment and Accreditation. “Every ten years, each institution needs to have their accreditation reaffirmed by their accrediting body,” she explained. “This year, Muskingum is going through that process with our accreditors, the Higher Learning Commission. I am leading a campus-wide committee in gathering and presenting evidence so that we can show the accreditors the great work we are doing at Muskingum and demonstrate the exciting opportunities we offer to our students.”

Dr. Adams joined Muskingum in 2010. She holds her B.A. from Miami University, M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.