Green & White: Office Pieces A glimpse into our faculty offices reveals interesting items and clues to their owners' interests and expertise.
Kay McAdams is from Lincoln, NB, originally, and received her B.A. in History and German and Secondary Education from Nebraska Wesleyan University. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Indiana University. McAdams began teaching at York College in 1999 (her husband is a native of Spring Grove). She teaches courses on Nazi Germany, the Holocaust in Film, Women and War, and the West in the World. She is Coordinator for History, as well as Director of General Education for York College. She has two children who attend York Country Day School, and fosters for an area dog rescue organization. –BS
Around 120 minifigs, small Lego figurines, adorn McAdams' office windowsill. When Lego issues a new series, she is always excited to add them to her collection. From Santa Claus to Lisa Simpson, these minifigs come in a wide variety of characters.
McAdams keeps a piece of the Berlin Wall in her office. She obtained this in February 1990 when she studied in Berlin. The wall had just come down in 1989, and McAdams hacked the piece off with the help of an older East German gentleman, who rented tools for chipping pieces off the wall. Shortly after she received her piece, the German government realized that they should preserve the Wall as a historical monument.
McAdams purchased the professor Barbie doll at Target. She knew she had to buy it for her office because she believes that the slogan on the box, "I chalk it up to my Ph.D. in fashion," is the antithesis of her views, and also reflective of an early 1960s mindset that didn't value professional women.
York College Magazine • WINTER 2015-2016 | 9
The mugs depict pictures of East German crossing guards, known as Ampelmaennchen, which translates to "little crosswalk guys." She lived in Berlin during a major period of reconstruction in Germany, from 19951996, when there was a systematic dismantling of the Ampelmaennchen to bring its infrastructure up to the standard of West Berlin. To McAdams, the Ampelmaennchen symbolize the crazy period of rebuilding and the campaign that was launched to save them.