by Robin DeRosa, CoLab Director
It is with such happiness and excitement for our beloved Interdisciplinary Studies program that I announce the hire of Dr. Matthew Cheney as the new permanent director of the program. Matt has been serving for a year as Interim Director, and after a competitive international search, he has now been appointed Assistant Professor and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies here at Plymouth State University.
Matt earned a BA and PhD in English from the University of New Hampshire, and an MA in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College. He taught high school English and theatre for ten years in New Hampshire and New Jersey and has taught English, Women’s Studies, and Communications & Media Studies over his years at PSU. He is the author of the collection Blood: Stories, which won the Hudson Prize and was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2016, as well as Modernist Crisis and the Pedagogy of Form, forthcoming from Bloomsbury, as well as many, many book chapters and journal articles. He has also worked as an actor, earning a New Hampshire Theatre Award nomination for his portrayal of Caliban in Advice to the Players’ production of The Tempest, though he is probably best known as the title character in the independent film Zombie Boy, which I think personally needs to be screened in the CoLab office. Watch the trailer now if you really want to understand why Matt fits right in on our team.
But it’s not his scholarly record or ability to portray monsters on stage and screen that make me the most hopeful for the future of IDS. It’s how he understands and appreciates the special qualities of this program and its students. Here’s an excerpt from Matt’s application letter for this position:
During the first months as Interim Director of Interdisciplinary Studies, I never had a moment to stop and reflect on my feelings about the job. In the winter, though, I was talking with a friend about all that I was doing, and all that I hoped to do, and she said, “You’re so clearly passionate about your program and your colleagues.” I paused at that, because yes, yes I am — and I hadn’t actually noticed.
Is this the path I imagined for myself? No. I didn’t even know this was a path that was open to me (though on reflection it made sense, because all of my academic work has always tended toward interdisciplinarity). The work I get to do as Director of IDS is more meaningful and more important than anything I ever knew to imagine. In that respect, I’m a bit like the many students who come to us in their junior and even senior year to say, “The thing I thought I was doing isn’t working out. I am betwixt and between. How can I salvage the aspects I love and still thrive?” To those students, we say: Welcome to IDS. You are one of us.
What I have learned this year is that I, too, am one of us.
It is an honor to be able to continue this work. I plan to do exactly what I tell my students to do: Think creatively, dream big, and seek out the impossible. You can’t predict what you’ll find on the journey between the familiar and the unknown, but you can be sure you will discover more than you would have found otherwise.
Matt is generous, open-minded, witty, and deeply committed to helping students find their way through and more deeply into learning. His reflections on teaching are honest, questioning, and critical, and he never for a moment loses focus on the real students and the real challenges and passions they bring with them into class. Hannah Hounsell, our amazing Program Support Administrator in the CoLab, writes this:
It’s been a joy and privilege to work with Matt this past year during his appointment as Interim Director, and I am thrilled that our work together can continue. Matt brings with him a rich background in teaching, research, and scholarship, as well as a deep commitment to helping students succeed and thrive. He is so clearly passionate about the IDS program, our students, and the individualized programs they create. I look forward to embarking on this journey with Matt, Robin, Martha, and the rest of the Open CoLab & IDS team!
Please join me in welcoming Matt (back) to IDS. We know he will be a dedicated guide for so many future IDS students, a supportive colleague to many PSU faculty who want to join the experiment in open pedagogy and learner-driven curriculum, and a key member of the CoLab’s odd and awesome founding team!
