Professor Nancy Arnesen thinks carefully about the challenges many people see in finding careers with liberal arts degrees. “There is not always a straight line between undergraduate major and post-college life,” she says. “This need not be a negative—in fact, it is arguably a great strength.”
In her courses, students encounter life’s biggest dilemmas through the work of ancient and modern authors, a practice that creates both safety and challenge for students considering their own place in the world.
Arnesen’s teaching and research interests span a wide swath of literature and related disciplines, including Shakespeare, Early Modern English literature, Milton, Spenser, feminist approaches to literature, and neuroscience and literature. She is grateful for the community of learners at ϳԹ that helps to foster such wide interests in faculty and students. “I find the life of the academic community at ϳԹ to be a constant parade of interesting and thought-provoking ideas, events, and opportunities,” she says.