Humanities Department Welcomes New Chair, Margaret Power
On the twenty-year anniversary of her employment in the Illinois Institute of Technology Department of Humanities, Professor of History Margaret Power has assumed the position of Chair of the Department of Humanities.
Power has held many titles in her time at Illinois Tech, but this is the first time she’s serving as chair.
“I started as a pre-doc, I was a post-doc, I was a visiting assistant [professor], then assistant, associate, full professor, and now I’m chair,” Power says.
That Power’s turn as Chair fell on her twentieth anniversary at the university is entirely coincidental. Power says serving as Chair offers a new way to experience the department she’s long been a part of.
“I look forward to expanding my understanding of the different majors the department offers, as well as the expertise its faculty bring to the department,” she says.
Power noted that things have changed a lot in the department over the years, particularly as the Humanities fields have adapted to incorporate significant technological advancements.
“It’s exciting and challenging to be part of a department that has developed innovative majors such as Digital Humanities, and a new Ph.D. in Humanities and Technology,” Power says.
Working as a historian within the context of a technology school has also provided Power with exposure to areas of study she may not otherwise have encountered.
“Being here 20 years has given me the opportunity to learn about fields that are very different from my own,” she says. “This in turn has broadened my intellectual horizons, and opened new perspectives on what academia is, and how diverse fields interpret and interface with society.”
During her time at Illinois Tech, the scope of Power’s own work has also evolved in surprising ways.
“When I came in, I was finishing my dissertation on right wing women in Chile. I transformed that into a book, and for quite a few years I continued working on the right in Latin America,” she says. “And now I am finishing a book on Norvelt, a New Deal community in southwest Pennsylvania named for EleaNOR RooseVELT. I was trained as a historian of Latin America, but I am publishing a book on U.S. History, so that’s a big switch. My current research examines the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, which supported independence for Puerto Rico.”
Power anticipates her book on the community of Norvelt will be published in Fall 2016.
