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As one would expect,
assistant professor of English Marlo Belschner can often be found in a
campus classroom, perhaps discussing one of her favorite plays by
William Shakespeare. She’s even pitched to her students her dream of
having an entire course revolve around reading and re-reading “Hamlet.”
But while Belschner is perfectly at home in such a classroom setting,
she believes teaching, as well as serving on faculty committees and
advising students, is about “half of what faculty do at a college like
Monmouth.”
It’s such an attitude that led to Belschner receiving the Hatch Academic
Excellence Award for Distinguished Service in 2007.
“At a small liberal arts college, there is the opportunity – and,
really, the necessity – to do work outside the department,” she said.
“Just within the English department, I have great models who understand
what service means. Rob Hale directs the 19th-Century Studies program,
Craig Watson coordinates the Citizenship curriculum and Mark Willhardt
directs ILA (Introduction to Liberal Arts).”
Belschner’s name can be added to the list of English professors with an
academic pursuit beyond their specialty, as she coordinates the
college’s Women’s Studies program. Her interest in that topic, she said,
came about while she was the student of a former Monmouth College
faculty member.
“I started as an undergrad at St. Cloud State, and my interest in
women’s studies was sparked by Connie Perry,” said Belschner, who earned
her bachelor’s degree in 1991, then returned to the university in 1998
for a four-year teaching stint before coming to Monmouth.
“The women’s studies philosophy fits with my way of looking at the world
in a way that makes complete sense to me,” she continued, adding that
she is also very interested in the study of power.
While “discussing early modern gender and sexuality” is one of her major
literary interests, she wrote that “strangely juxtaposed is my passion
for the early canonical writers,” including Shakespeare. Asked to bring
the two together by naming a favorite female character in Shakespeare’s
works, she chose Paulina, from “A Winter’s Tale.”
“Paulina’s really working behind the scenes, for 16 years, right until
the very end,” said Belschner. “She’s a very interesting character, and
she emerges as the main teacher in the play and the reason for its
dramatic movement.”
Belschner’s strong interest in author Toni Morrison has never wavered
through the years, but Shakespeare’s works began to attract her sometime
between her master’s and doctoral work at Southern Illinois University.
“I switched at that point,” she said. “I could never get bored with him.
He wrote 36 or 38 plays, depending on how you count, and there’s just so
much to look at.”
Asked to name a favorite work, Belschner compared the plays to a
mother’s love for her children. “I love them all differently,” she said.
“Today, I would have to say ‘The Tempest’ because it’s just so complex.
It’s a mirage. It’s like a perceptual gestalt. You can look at it one
way and see one thing, and then you can look at it a different way and
see something else, even the exact opposite. It’s also so visually
beautiful … and it has a monster. How can you not like a monster?”
Paulina worked behind the scenes to move “A Winter’s Tale” along. While
performing some of her non-teaching duties at the college, Belschner has
had a similar experience of being out of the limelight, yet filling
important roles.
“The one that was the most time-consuming was my three years with the
assessment and accreditation process,” she said. “Although the work was
frustrating, it was also very important for the college. I’ve also been
on three search committees for new faculty. You’re looking for people
who will put, hopefully, a lifetime investment and commitment into the
college, and it’s important to hire the right person.”
Another way Belschner has been active on campus has been her service as
an adviser to the Monmouth chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta, the national
honor society for first-year college students.
In fact, her work with that organization has been so notable that she
was recently named one of five national recipients of Alpha Lambda
Delta’s Advisor of the Year Awards.
“The high-achieving students of Alpha Lambda Delta have been incredibly
active and enthusiastic about the organization and its goals, and I’ve
been pleased to provide guidance as they have needed it,” she said.
Belschner’s award letter praised Monmouth’s initiation rate of 90
percent of eligible students since she became the adviser in 2004.
“Your enthusiasm must be contagious,” praised Alpha Lambda Delta’s
executive director, Glenda Earwood. “The Monmouth ALD chapter is
incredibly active and shows its desire to further its involvement with
Alpha Lambda Delta by entering the Order of the Torch (competition) this
year.”
As Belschner looks ahead at her career at Monmouth, she hopes to assure
continued funding for the popular biannual Blackfriars performances on
campus, and she also feels it’s important for Monmouth’s students to
travel off campus to see those types of productions. She also hopes to
see women’s studies have more impact across the entire campus and in
more students’ lives.
Belschner is also looking forward to an upcoming sabbatical, during
which she will have two major areas of focus. The first is to continue
her study of Edmund Spenser and pain in “The Faerie Queene,” and the
other is a project on Mary Ward, founder of the Institute of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, an order of Roman Catholic nuns that dates back to the
early 17th century. Her writings on Ward could become so involved that
she develops them into a book.
In just a few short years, Marlo Belschner has already made a profound
impact on Monmouth College with her work in the classroom and behind the
scenes. When all is said and done, her contributions on campus figure to
be the exact opposite of one of her favorite lines from Shakespeare’s
“Macbeth” – “(Life) is a tale told by an idiot – full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.”
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