A professor skipped school last Thursday. He was at the University of Pennsylvania instead. And yes, he had permission.
When he left, Matthew Gaetano was a professor in the history department. He has returned now, a changed man. He is Matthew Gaetano, doctor of history.
Gaetano skipped school to defend his dissertation. That was the final step in a long process to earning his doctorate degree. Graduating from Hillsdale in 2005 and returning to teach in 2011, he has been working on the dissertation throughout his two and a half years of teaching here.
Gaetano’s dissertation topic reflects his specialization as an intellectual historian: one who studies the history of ideas.
“My dissertation is about the teaching of theology and metaphysics in the universities of the Italian Renaissance, particularly the University of Padua,” he said, slouched, staring at the ceiling as he tried to articulate years of study in a few sentences, “I’m mainly interested in how the thought of Thomas Aquinas may or may not have been integrated into a renaissance intellectual milieu.”
At 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 10, Gaetano defended his research and the claims he made in his dissertation before a panel of experts. When informed that he had succeeded in defending his dissertation, he officially became a doctor.
There will be a ceremony to grant the degree in December.
“But that is pro-forma,” Gaetano said with a grin.
Provost David Whalen said that the college is delighted with Gaetano’s accomplishment and congratulates him.
“And—I should add—anyone who knows Dr. Gaetano should know not to be surprised by this success,” Whalen said.
Gaetano made progress over breaks, especially the summer.
“It’s very difficult, especially given the culture at Hillsdale College, to make all that much progress on the dissertation during normal class time” Gaetano said, explaining that being available to students in office hours, grading papers, and preparing for classes occupies most of his time during the year.
Gaetano’s brother has acted as a kind of dissertation coach for him, trying to keep him on task and motivated.
“He would often be angry at me for taking on an extra independent study,” Gaetano said. “He’d say, ‘There’s no way you’re going to get this thing done, even with just your course work, if you add one or two extra independent studies.’”
Gaetano worked sometimes during evenings but generally weekends and breaks. He described his attitude about the process.
“Get it done as fast as you possibly can,” he said, then qualified the statement: “Of course, everyone has been very supportive and encouraging, but they realize the dangers of having this kind of unfinished project early in your teaching career. Of course, Hillsdale takes itself very seriously, and if I didn’t get it done, I couldn’t have a long term position here.”
Whalen said that the college hired Gaetano in a tenure track teaching position with full confidence in his competency to teach and the expectation that he would attain a terminal degree.
“The Ph.D. does signal a kind of a summit,” Whalen said, describing it as the completion and culmination of a certain type of learning, but also as the beginning of a life of teaching and scholarship, adding that with a completed dissertation, “there’s an element of suspension that is removed.”
Gaetano had a draft of his dissertation done when he arrived to teach at Hillsdale.
“It has just taken a couple of years to make the revisions necessary, in part because of all the other things that I’ve been doing and learning how to do,” Gaetano said.
Gaetano was not alone on the dissertation boat. Instructor of Philosophy Lee Cole is finishing his dissertation and plans to defend it in 2014. The pair became friends at Hillsdale; Cole graduated the year before Gaetano in 2004. Cole attended Villanova, close to U. Penn.
Cole’s dissertation is also related to Thomas Aquinas and titled, “At the Limits of Realism: St. Thomas Aquinas and the Intellectual Knowledge of Singulars.”
That Thomistic theme in both their dissertations has been a boon to working alongside each other. Cole’s dissertation has allowed him to explain some of the Thomistic theories Gaetano has encountered in his research, and Gaetano has been able to explain the historical context and impact of the ideas that Cole has been exploring.
“That’s part of the reason why we’ve been able to contribute to each other’s projects in such a constructive manner.”
Whalen expressed his admiration of Gaetano and Cole’s relationship.
“There is a certain kind of beauty in their mutual association with the college as undergraduates, and their continuing friendship through graduate school, and even the extension of that friendship into their intellectual interests,” Whalen said.
The celebrations of Gaetano’s success have been myriad. Gaetano’s own announcement of his success on Facebook–which he paired with celebratory YouTube videos, including clips from “Rocky Balboa” and “Star Wars”–received 177 likes, while his wall was flooded with congratulatory messages and comments.
Students celebrating his accomplishment littered his door with sticky-note well wishes and scattered signs of Gaetano’s face on triumphant and doctoral pop culture figures around campus.
“The students here are the best,” Gaetano said, “I love them. I’m so blessed to be a part of this college.”
