Bailey Reid

Dr. Linda Miller, an English professor at Penn State Abington, has led a fascinating career both in and outside the classroom. By discovering what she truly enjoyed, and taking opportunities when they presented themselves, Dr. Miller has discovered her true passions and encourages students to do the same. To get greater insight into how exactly Dr. Miller forged her own path, I sat down with her to ask her a few questions about her life and career. 

“I think it really starts with your undergraduate program,” said Dr. Linda Miller when asked about how students can discover their passion. “I would just say for students to just be open to thinking about…“What do I really enjoy doing, and where might that lead me?”

Q: How long have you been at Penn State Abington?

A: “Oh, years and years and years. I came in the ‘80s. I came shortly before it became a four-year college, so it was still kind of a feeder campus for the Main Campus. But now it’s a wonderful four year college. It was exciting to be a part of that. And then, at that time when it became a four-year college, we were able to offer the English major.”

Q: When you started going to college, did you know that you wanted to be an English professor? 

A: “You know, I often think back on how did I get to where I am today. I would never have imagined that I’d be a professor, with a PhD and a published writer and so forth. I just loved to read as a young person. I couldn’t wait to get home from school so I could go up to my bedroom and get out my books. It just seemed a no-brainer to me that when I went to college, I would major in English. I did decide to go on to get my PhD…at University of Delaware in English. Once I got my PhD, that prepared me for college teaching. While I was in graduate school, I began to publish, and that put me at the top of the heap when it came time to interview for college teaching positions. I got my job at Penn State and a tenure-line position. So, that just got me going, and I’ve been here at Penn State and I love it. I love my teaching; it’s an ideal career. I’m able to teach, but also I’m supported in the writing that I do and the research and traveling to collect materials to write from and going to conferences. It’s just been a wonderful career–I really love the students I get here. You know, I think we’ve got some really creative, unique students here, which has been fun.”

Q: I know you’ve done a lot of research on Ernest Hemingway. What was it that drew you to Hemingway and when did you feel that draw? 

A: “It was really in graduate school and it just sort of happened by chance. I was taking a graduate course on the writers of the 1920s–Fitzgerald and Hemingway–and then I was also taking a research methods course, which was required for the major and for the PhD. One of the requirements was to do a paper based on original documents. So, the Fitzgerald papers are at Princeton…I finally got to the library and it was just by chance, I asked for this folder–it was just called “The Murphys.” I began to explore, then that led to that whole circle of expatriate writers who traveled to France in the 1920s and kind of hung out at the villa of Sara and Gerald Murphy, who were a rich American couple. Hemingway was a part of that group, and I started to research Hemingway letters and the more I got into Hemingway, he sort of took over. I really write a lot about that whole era of the 1920s, but Hemingway has been a huge part of my writing and my career. I think he was the father of modern American prose, he did so much to change the way people write.”

Q: What would you say to any student that hasn’t found their passion yet, as you discovered Hemingway?

A: “I think it really starts with your undergraduate program. The reality is, there are so many wonderful degrees that you can take that will lead to fascinating careers. I would just say for students to just be open to thinking about, ‘Well, what do I really enjoy doing?’ not ‘What should I be doing?’ but ‘What do I really enjoy doing, and where might that lead me?'”

Though it is not always easy to find what you love, Dr. Miller discovered her passions and continues to follow them. She believes that we can find them, too, as long as we take the time to ask ourselves, “What do I really enjoy doing?”