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John R. Haddad, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of American Studies and Literature

School: Humanities

John Haddad

Hometown:  Chevy Chase, Maryland

Education Information:

A.B. in English, Harvard, 1991
M.A. in English, Yale, 1996
Ph.D. in American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 2002

Recent and notable publications, awards, and honors:

The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776-1876, Columbia University Press (2006). 

This book explores the many ways that ordinary Americans encountered China in the first 100 years of their history.  Here I am referring to things like museum exhibits, panoramic paintings, blue and white porcelain, tea advertisements, travelogues, missionary accounts, children’s literature, and world fairs.  The book tells the story of how the newest country in the world, then the United States, first got to know the oldest nation, China.  I think the recent and ongoing rise of China enhances the relevance of the book because the two nations are clearly going to have to “get to know one another” once again in the 21st century!

Favorite TV show and/or music: I like a lot of TV shows, much to my wife’s chagrin.  But since my field is American Studies, when she tells me to turn off the tube I can always counter, “I’m researching American culture!”  My favorite shows are “The American Experience” on PBS, “24” on Fox, and Sports Center on ESPN.  As for music, I like Classical Music when I’m working (because it doesn’t interrupt your thought processes) but Rock & Roll when I’m doing almost anything else, because it provides your life with a steady beat and a nice rhythm.

Hobbies: I have two little kids.  Need you ask?

What is the best thing about being a professor at Penn State Harrisburg? When I was in graduate school, I always dreamed about teaching at a small liberal arts college.  Yet I also enjoy research, which means that I need to draw heavily from the resources that a large state university can best provide.  Penn State Harrisburg is unique in that it offers both simultaneously.  It is, in other words, the best of both worlds.  I think students are attracted to our campus for similar reasons: while they crave smaller class sizes and individual attention from their professors, they are also drawn to the educational resources, cultural offerings, big-time athletics, and international reputation of Penn State.    

How does your research influence your teaching? In general terms, researching has taught me that the human mind best processes information when that information is presented in narrative form.  That is to say, we love stories: we convert everyday experience into stories, and we use stories to understand our world.  In my classroom, I communicate a lot of information about the past in story-form because I think students remember it this way.  Stories help to humanize, if you will, difficult concepts. More specifically, I teach a class on Chinese Americans in which I borrow heavily from my research.  In addition, I am starting a new research project on the entertainment complex at Hershey.  The research I conduct here is sure to inform an American Studies class I teach regularly on Popular Culture (AM ST 105).

What is your favorite thing about the Harrisburg area? The Harrisburg area has everything you want in a big city, but none of the hassles.  We have the theater, professional sports, movies, museums, and various cultural sites.  Better still, you can get from the city to the countryside in mere minutes – without traffic!

What is your favorite event on campus? I am thrilled about the return of athletics to Penn State Harrisburg.  This is already providing our campus with a collegiate feeling that I love.  Go Nittany Lions!

Why did you choose Penn State Harrisburg? I chose Penn State Harrisburg because of its American Studies Program.  As a field, American Studies was invented to value or take seriously aspects of culture that other fields were overlooking.  Along with traditional literature and conventional historical sources, we also study things like toys, advertisements, folklore, movies, TV shows, theme parks, shopping, pop magazines, sports, political campaigns, children’s games, and trashy novels, just to name a few.  Since these sorts of events or texts have always held meaning for ordinary Americans, we feel that they deserve to be studied in a classroom setting.  American Studies does exactly that!  Returning to your question, I came to Penn State Harrisburg so that I could expose students to this wonderfully innovative and exciting field – and have a fun time doing so!

Do you have a favorite professor-student experience? I had tremendous professors at the University of Texas, which is where I received my training in American Studies.  Though they were all very different from one another, if I had to pinpoint what that group did especially well as a whole, I would say that they gave me unlimited access to their expertise.  They withheld nothing from their students – not their time, not their knowledge, not their professional advice.  Their intellectual generosity is what I took away from that experience.  It is a model truly worthy of emulation. 

If you weren’t a professor, what would you be doing? I am afraid I am not multi-talented.  Teaching and writing are about the only things I can do.  If I were not a professor, I’d probably be doing something in the publishing industry – perhaps editing books.  Who knows?  I might still be living with my parents, burdening them as a financial drain.  I guess they are happy Penn State Harrisburg took me in.