faculty o≈ce hours
A Global Perspective Interview by Megan Kirby
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Mary Kay Mulvaney fell in love with international travel on a study-abroad experience in England during her own college years. Today, as an English professor and director of the Honors Program at Elmhurst, she regularly leads students on overseas adventures. Here, she talks about the importance of seeing the world. What are some of the most memorable moments of your trips with students? On one trip, we arrived in Paris and everyone was tired after a long day of travel. We got there, we got settled in the hotel. This was in January, so it was cold but not as touristy. We walked over to the Seine, and the sun was just starting to set against the backdrop behind the EiΩel Tower. It was so iconic—just a magical moment. I remember that sense of awe. Some of the most powerful moments have occurred during the course on the Holocaust. The emotional impact of walking through some of the former concentration camps and having face-to-face time in a small setting with a survivor, or the child of a survivor—it’s so powerful for the students to experience. What do you try to impress upon your students during these trips? I’m trying to get students to think about worlds beyond what they immediately know—to challenge them to understand that there’s not just one way to go through this life. The more experiences you have with diΩerent cultures, the more you understand. What draws you to traveling? I travel in order to get insights into the way other people live. It’s always fascinating to me that each of us occupies one tiny dot on this planet, while simultaneously, millions and billions of people are living on other dots on the planet, in diΩerent ways with diΩerent resources. No matter how much you see, you realize how much more there is to see. Every time I go to someplace new, I get that feeling all over again. Where have you taken your students, and what did you teach? I co-developed a course called City as Text, which gives students the opportunity to study urban life in Europe. I’ve taught that class eight times—four times in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague; and another four times in London and Oxford. I also teach two courses on the Holocaust that take students to places like Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic. In January I’ll co-teach my 13th international course for Elmhurst, which I developed with the support of the Andrew J. Prinz faculty development grant. For this course, I’ll take a group to Martinique to study the island’s journey from slave colony to tourist destination.
Why is it important for students to study abroad? We can’t have forward-thinking, ethical leadership for our future world unless those leaders have a global perspective. When people have a limited perspective, they build up fears, they build up stereotypes, they approach the world with a very myopic vision of things. The results can be terrifying. The greatest thing I can bring students as an educator is to enlarge their world. We can read texts together, I can lead discussions, I can talk about things in a classroom, but there’s no substitute for actually going to a new place in the world. As a seasoned world traveler, do you have any tips about packing for a trip? You can always get by with less than you think you can. Less is more. Don’t worry about repeating outfits. There are things you can leave at home that you think you can’t live without.