CHC Faculty Series: Connolly Ryan

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CHC Faculty Series: Connolly Ryan 

Meet Connolly Ryan, a senior lecturer II at the Commonwealth Honors College and a professor for Ideas that Change the World, a class he’s famously known for. In this interview, we learnt more about Professor Ryan's work and his journey leading up to the Honors College. 

1) How did your journey bring you to teaching at CHC?

I began teaching a one credit course called Dean’s Book when I was studying poetry as an MFA student, and that course evolved into Ideas That Change The World.

2) What is your teaching approach or philosophy?

I have found that when I take myself too seriously, no one else will; but that when I take the class material seriously and passionately, students are prone to follow suit.  

I also try to leave lots of wiggle-room for good innovative conversations to spontaneously take place. In other words: if you don’t wing it, how are you going to fly?

3) What is your favorite part of teaching Honors classes?

Honors students, in my experience, tend to be genuinely attentive, intellectually hungry, marvelously introspective (especially when prompted) and deeply appreciative and respectful of the classroom community I try to foster and sustain each new semester.

4) How has your experience teaching in CHC shaped how you see yourself as an educator?

I see myself as an advocate of meaningful investigation as opposed to ideological indoctrination and therefore never shy away from diving deep into difficult topics regarding history writ large and American history in particular. I am less concerned about being politically correct than I am about being historically astute. Part of my mission (taking a cue from Socrates) is to unapologetically examine and excavate the unflattering truths and stubbornly enduring myths of humanity and history in order to improve them on both an individual as well as collective level.

5) What do you hope Honors students will take away from your class?

At best, I hope my students consider my classes to be a transformative experience from which they can draw courage and momentum to help them navigate their own narratives with the introspective/investigative spirit and technique mentioned above. At the very least, I want them to enjoy reading a little bit more than they had before and to feel more connected to the world and less isolated from it. Or, as James Baldwin once so eloquently nailed it: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

6) What are some of the classes you teach?

I teach three sections of Honors 201H (Ideas That Change The World) which I treat as a kind of hybrid composite of history, philosophy, literature, creative writing of nonfiction, ethics and social justice.

7) Why did you get into teaching?

I love to read great books and discover innovative ways to interact with the ideas on the page and by teaching and dissecting as a group I attempt to instill that sense of tangible urgency and personal growth into my students and always manage to learn a great deal from them during this process. In short, I stand by Mark Twain’s conviction that  "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them,” or, in slightly more colorful terms:

If you are able to get lost in a great book, you are much less likely to get lost in a shitty life.