Getting to know Sean Lawing , Ph . D .
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Influences from the Land of Fire & Ice
Getting to know Sean Lawing , Ph . D .
By Angella Irwin
Viking History , Nazi Germany , Christianity in Medieval Northern Europe , Barbarians and the Fall of Rome , Vengeance and Justice in the Medieval World , and European Folk and Fairy Tales are among the courses taught by Professor Sean Lawing , Ph . D . A common thread throughout his teaching repertoire is exactly that — an exploration of common threads . Whether in a language , history , or writing class , students reach across time , culture , and other barriers to find what is essential about humanity . That , Sean says , is worth facilitating .
As chair of the history and social sciences department , and in his 13th year at Bryn Athyn College , Sean says the process of becoming a professor was organic . He explains , “ Being an academic is something you ’ re revealed to be because you love learning and talking about a topic , and eventually you connect into a community of a certain kind .” His path grew forward by way of following his interests and adding in large quantities of study and hard work . Starting as an undergraduate at the University of North Caro- lina Charlotte , he then studied at the graduate level at UNC-Chapel Hill , and finally completed doctoral work at the University of Iceland .
At UNC-Charlotte , Sean was a German major , and as part of an internship he assisted in a third grade classroom at the German immersion school in downtown Charlotte . One of the lessons from that experience was that very young students and collegeaged learners have something in common . He finds that he gets impressive insights regularly from students in these age ranges : younger students tend to be more forthcoming and unafraid to state their observations , while on the other hand college students can draw on their more substantial experiences to make particularly creative or interesting connections .
While at UNC-Charlotte , Sean was exposed to a range of German literature , including fairytales , and as he explored these interests he began reading Icelandic sagas on his own . This marked the start of a long scholarly relationship with Old Icelandic that influenced his subsequent academic pursuits , from grad-
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