Samuel Knecht, professor of art, is one of a number of professors taking the whole semester off on Sabbatical. He’s been painting, a lot.
“Some local, and some involving travel,” Knecht said, “The travel points, three of them: the Upper Peninsula, Leelanau near Traverse City in upper Michigan—the third destination was Monhegan Island, Maine.”
Knecht, who has been teaching at Hillsdale for 35 years, last took a Sabbatical in 2006. He said he has divided his artistic energies between portraiture and landscape painting this semester. He is currently working on an official portrait for the Michigan Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman.
However, he has not been entirely cut off from college duties. He helped produce and art department book for Homecoming and the Gala, is coordinating a Studio Incamminati life drawing workshop for January, and organized the various exhibits in the Sage Center, including the professional artist’s series exhibit of Judith Carducci’s work.
“While on Monhegan Island—I found it immensely picturesque—I was invited to join a group of artists led by Judith Carducci,” Knecth said, explaining how the invitation had been extended as he communicated with Carducci regarding her exhibition here. “She invited me to join her and a group to spend a week on the island painting from sun up to sun down.”
When Knecht paints on location, he generally carries 40 pounds of equipment as he hikes to and from his vantage point.
Seven other faculty members are on sabbatical in addition to Knecht: Christopher Hamilton, associate professor of chemistry; David Murphy, associate professor of mathematics; Robert Miller, professor of biology; Christopher Busch, professor of English; Eberhard Geyer, professor of German; Paul Rahe, professor of history; and William Morrisey, professor of Politics.
Rahe told the Collegian last semester that he would be writing and studying at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, punctuating his time with road trips with his family. When emailed, his autoreply indicated he was on one such road trip.
Busch said he has been doing a variety of things this semester.
What I’m working on right now—I’m doing a book review of the Selected Writings of Willa Cather, and what’s really interesting about it is that her letters have never been published before, and the reason was that in her will she specifically prohibited the publishing of her letters,” Busch said, “but I guess over time they’ve been able to override her wishes.”
Busch also said he has been reading. Specifically, he has been focusing on reading 20th century spiritual biographies and modern American poetry. He endeavors, during sabbaticals, to read up on topics he would be interested in perhaps teaching a new course on when he returns to school.
“My last sabbatical I did a lot of reading of Robert Frost, and then did two or three classes on Frost when I got back from Sabbatical,” Busch said. Like Knecht, his last sabbatical was in 2006.
Busch thinks he may want to teach a single author course on the poetry of Theodore Roethke.
“What’s really interesting about him is that his father was a greenhouse planter—he grew flowers and other things in a greenhouse as a business,” Busch said, “His poetry has a lot of images and of growth.”
Busch’s interest in spiritual biographies was partly spurred by St. Augustine’s “Confessions,” the original spiritual autobiography, and the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist who survived the Nazi concentration camps.
“What I’ve been interested in is trying to see if there are twentieth century spiritual auto biographies,” Busch said, “I wanted to think about Augustine and Frankel and find other writers who are trying to find something spiritual and find meaning.”
For Busch, the best part of the sabbatical is just getting to read.
“I’ve been using Melcat a lot,” he said, “That’s been really great, just having the freedom to read.”
Busch said he misses observing the freshmen arrive on campus.
“I really love teaching, I’ll be happy to be back next Semester,” Busch said, “The down side is I don’t get to have the daily interaction with students and I really miss you all.”