Alumni Bio:
Dr. Adrian Rice is a December 2023 Graduate of the Doctoral Program! Currently, Dr. Rice is working here at Appalachian State University as a Senior Lecturer in both the College of Education and the Honors College.
How would you define leadership and how would you describe your leadership style?
[It is] Hard to define leadership, but I guess I have always been attracted to leaders who, among other things, are first and foremost, deeply knowledgeable about their chosen subject/field, and who are passionate, enthusiastic, empathetic, and open to learning from those they are attempting to lead. As my dissertation attests to, my own life was forever changed in my teens by an inspirational English teacher who had all of these qualities in abundance.
I may be a serious poet and professor now, but I was also a classic 'jock' back in the day, and captained many of the soccer (football!) and rugby teams that I was lucky to play for. I guess I retain something of that 'captain-cum-coach' passion that somehow came naturally to me in the sporting arena, and I think I simply bring that committed, motivational style personality to sharing my lifelong passion for all things Arts, especially poetry, in the classroom setting.
How have your doctorate studies/dissertation been valuable to you since graduation?
In my FYS classes I attempt to prove and to celebrate the educational power of good poems, the very same objective I had in my dissertation, entitled - Between the 'Planter & the Gael:' A Cross-Community Education in Poetry. Quite naturally, much of what is in my dissertation easily finds its way into my syllabi and classroom sessions, and in that way I have found the dissertation to be a living thing - truly, and ongoingly 'use-full', as it were.
Also, my dissertation was deliberately structured as a '4 article' dissertation, with four of five dissertation chapters being chapter-articles written with an eye to publication. One chapter has been recently published in Christianity & Literature, a special Irish Writing Issue (edited by Dr. Richard Rankin Russell, Baylor University). Other article-chapters are now under consideration, and good folk, from both here and back home in Ireland, are hinting at possible publication in book form of the whole dissertation. So the dissertation is proving to be a spur not only to my classroom practices, but to my academic/publishing life, too.
What advice would you give to current students?
Oh, I could [go] on all day! To my own students in FYS, among many other things, I encourage them to both look in and look out; to think for themselves; to 'see' things, as if for the first time; to truly read, not skim; to foster empathy by imagining what it's like to be 'other'; to pick a subject at college that they are passionate about, and do the work required to the best of their ability; and most importantly, perhaps, to also play - to get the juices out of their college experience, as it doesn't get much better than these years.
In terms of graduate students, doctoral students? I'd tell them to enjoy every minute of their classes, and to be open to the often unsettling experience of having one's preconceived notions and ideas challenged, and often changed, but always charged. I would also suggest finding a dissertation subject as early as possible, and thereby angling written class work towards the final dissertation goal. And I would tell them to pick a committed Dissertation Chair and members, and to realize that they are lucky to have a supportive Doctoral leadership team - use them!
Dr. Adrian Rice