By Zach Brooks, Social Media Manager
The fall ’23 semester marks the start of Professor Christopher D’Addario’s term as Chairperson of the English Department. He enters the role having taught English at the college for ten years.
D’Addario first came to Gettysburg College in 2005 as a visiting professor after completing graduate school. After leaving Gettysburg and holding a job at another institution, he returned in 2012 in a tenure-track position. One of the reasons D’Addario said he was drawn to teach at Gettysburg College is the smaller class sizes and the ability this provides for students to get to know one another and work with others in a way that one cannot at a bigger school.
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing students grow intellectually and emotionally across their four years and feeling that I can potentially contribute to that growth in meaningful ways,” said D’Addario.
D’Addario also said he was attracted to the freedom that Gettysburg College’s English Department gave him to develop his own courses about Shakespeare and early modern literature. One of these courses is a class on Shakespeare and global film, while another course is on environmental change in the Renaissance.
In his new role, D’Addario hopes to build on the work of previous English Department Chairs: Professor of English Kathyrn Rhett and Professor of English and Graeff Chair Christopher Fee. D’Addario also wants to rethink the types of courses the department offers, as well as the ways that the department offers them.
Christopher D’Addario (Photo courtesy of Christopher D’Addario)
“The discipline is at an interesting and important crossroads as we try to figure out how literature and writing can react to and impact the number of crises – environmental, racial, social, political – that we face,” explained D’Addario.
Additionally, D’Addario discussed the increasing popularity of AI-generated texts and the value that thoughtful and personal writing holds in light of this. He feels strongly that English as a discipline and major has an important role in this contemporary moment.
“English classes and the major generally do encourage and help students to face head-on these issues, issues that they will be dealing with for the rest of their lives, both in their careers and outside of them,” said D’Addario.
D’Addario anticipates some challenges in his new role, such as budgetary pressures from the college that could specifically worsen cost-cutting in the humanities. This includes the closure of the Gettysburg Review.
“The recent closure of The Gettysburg Review is especially alarming, given the journal’s high national profile and the damage that this closure will do to the college’s reputation and especially its reputation as an important voice in the literary and creative worlds,” D’Addario said.
D’Addario hopes that the publication’s closure is not part of a continuing trend to take away opportunities from the arts and humanities programs that a strong liberal arts institution like Gettysburg College supports. D’Addario spoke on challenging the trend to devalue and defund the humanities.
“I’ve seen enough articles about the death of the English major that I am surprised that it has not become some sort of meme yet. Trying to debunk what has become a silly trope at this point is part of challenging these trends,” said D’Addario.
When asked if any works from Shakespeare may help him in his new position as Chairperson of the English Department, D’Addario said, “Honestly, most everything Shakespeare has to say about authority is pretty cynical and skeptical. Rightfully so.”
D’Addario ended his interview by sharing this quote from Shakespeare: “But man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority… plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep.”
This article originally appeared on page 10 of the No. 2 October 2023 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine.
