Dr. Linda Mitchell has been the Martha Jane Philips Starr MO Distinguished Professor since 2008 when she joined UMKC’s History Department.
“I had been teaching for seventeen years at a university in western New York State, but was invited to apply for the position of the Martha Jane Phillips Starr Missouri Distinguished Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UMKC and couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” she said. “I already knew a few people here and had attended the MAMA (Mid-America Medieval Association) conference, so I knew that UMKC had an interesting culture and a lot of energy—and it doesn’t snow here like it does in western New York!”
In her work with graduate students, Dr. Mitchell spends time discussing process.
“In my mind, degree programs are not ends unto themselves; they are part of the process of self-actualization. Therefore, what graduate students need is not just a set of tools for their academic toolboxes, but also an understanding of process, method, theory, and how these elements fit into a personal research and scholarly agenda,” she said. “I encourage students to develop projects they really LOVE: if you are going to live with a dissertation topic for 3-4 years, it is important to be continually surprised, pleased, enchanted by it.”
Dr. Mitchell enjoys several aspects of her job.
“I love the ethos of this institution, the diversity of the student body, and the energy and drive of (most of) my students,” she said. “In my previous position I did not have the opportunity to work with graduate students and so I am delighted to have that chance here—and I have quite a few of them. Although I teach fewer classes here at UMKC than I did before, I think that I have more intensive contact here, as I spend a great deal of time working individually with students as well as overseeing theses and dissertations. And I find that the students who seek me out are wonderful to work with.”
Along with her work with graduate students, Mitchell spends time researching and writing, works with the Women’s and Gender Studies program, and is senior editor for Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques. She has received good reviews for her newest book, Joan de Valence: The Life and Influence of a Thirteenth-Century Nobelwoman. She has also been elected the Vice President of the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship.
From a very young age, Dr. Mitchell was interested in history.
“I found that my ‘comfort zone’ was right in-between the dominant interests of my parents, influenced no doubt by being one of the generation who learned about medieval stuff through reading Tolkein and watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” she said. “My focus on the history of women in the middle ages was formed in graduate school; my dissertation analyzed the lives and activities of aristocratic widows in the thirteenth century. My first tenure-track job was in a multi-disciplinary department, where I collaborated with faculty in Philosophy, Religious Studies, History, and Fine Arts; I still consider that kind of interdisciplinary work essential to good scholarship.”
For graduate students who are considering becoming faculty members in the future, Dr. Mitchell says to be versatile.
“The academic universe has changed—not necessarily for the better, but irrevocably—and scholars who have a diverse academic background and can demonstrate competence in a variety of subjects are going to be sought after,” she said. “The era when we could all (theoretically) teach to our specialty (something, frankly, I have never had the luxury of doing!) is over.”
Dr. Mitchell also had advice for all graduate students.
“Embrace the process and cherish it,” she said. “You will never have another opportunity to be so intellectually unencumbered.”
As for her time thus far at UMKC, Dr. Mitchell describes it as busy.
“I thought that being an endowed professor would give me more time, perhaps to play golf (which I love but haven’t touched in over four years!) and other ‘slower’ hobbies. It has been nothing like that: I am running all the time,” she said. “I have several projects in mind for the next few years, some of them having to do with a greater level of community engagement, especially with the Kansas City arts communities, but they are in the nascent stages as of yet.”
Dr. Mitchell said she plans to retire within the next five years.
“I plan on perhaps teaching as an emerita professor for a couple of years, but also spending more time thinking, reading, and writing,” she said. “I want to do more traveling, overseas and in the U.S. And I have a number of books I want to write, in particular one that focuses on modernism and the ‘world of art’ movement that was spearheaded by the artists involved in the creation of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.”