Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Retirement pursuits: John Gottcent
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When John Gottcent, professor of English and founding director of the University Core Curriculum, joined USI, the English department was so small that everybody had to be a generalist, he said. “In my first three years here, I taught 15 different courses. I was helping out in all different kinds of fields.” Gottcent arrived at USI in 1970, trained as a specialist in 19th century British literature, but has rarely taught a course in it. Instead, he became an expert on biblical literature. “The English department decided in the late seventies that we needed a course on the literature of the Bible, because our majors were having difficulty recognizing biblical references in standard literature. I was assigned the project of designing the course. I didn’t want to do it because I had no background or training in it, but I ended up getting interested in it. It’s been very successful and has expanded from one course to two.” Gottcent’s Concept of Evil course was inspired by a friend who took a course on the devil in literature, which he expanded to evil in literature. “I introduced it in the seventies and it proved to be very popular. I’ve been teaching it ever since. I’m teaching it this semester. “My wife always says I’m trying to play it safe by teaching evil one semester and the Bible the other.” After retirement, he is looking forward to pursuing a more systematic study of Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Old and New Testaments, and plans to pursue a writing project that draws on his interest in biblical studies. He also would like to teach an occasional course at USI. He and his wife JoAnne plan to travel, and eventually relocate to an area “with less heat and humidity in the summer.” “I wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t admit that I also will spend a good amount of time playing with my model train collection,” he added. During his USI career, Gottcent has served on the Executive Council of the national board of the Association for General and Liberal Studies; was state faculty representative for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education appointed by the governor in the mid-nineties; and was chosen by his colleagues as the USI Integra Bank Distinguished Professor in 2000. He said though he’d miss USI, “After 36 years, it’s time for a change, both for the University and for me.” Gottcent’s last semester before retirement is spring 2006 and he will be on sabbatical in fall 2006. |
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