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New Faculty in Art History: Erik Thunø: Historian of Medieval
Art Joins Faculty
Tod Marder asked Erik Thunø, the newest member of our faculty, to tell
us a little about his experience moving from Rome to Rutgers. Professor Thunø’s
letter follows:
It is amazing how fast your life and professional career can take a new direction.
As late as summer 2003, the thought of teaching and doing research at an American
university was less on my mind than, for instance, the idea of switching my studies
from Italian medieval art to Norwegian stave churches. Having received my Ph.D.
at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1999 and having collaborated with
many American colleagues, I was not new to the American university and its academic
life. On the other hand, I had been back in Europe for several years serving
as the assistant director of the Danish Academy in Rome, and moving to the States
was not foremost in my mind. I was living and working under the huge pine trees
in the Villa Borghese, a splendid walk from both Piazza di Spagna and Piazza
del Popolo in the center of Rome. I had been a fellow at the Danish Academy when
I wrote my MA thesis, and I had always kept an eye on the specific job of assistant
director. In 2000 I was lucky enough to get it! I had a terrific and productive
time there, but knowing that the position – as is common at such foreign
academies — was not permanent, my restless mind started to call for new
challenges. In other words, I started to look around – Denmark? Germany?
Italy? Then a colleague called my attention to the American job market, and with
my education at an American university, I thought, why not at least give it a
try? I soon learned that Rutgers was looking for an historian of medieval art.
For somebody doing Italian art, the Art History Department at Rutgers was of
course ringing great bells in my ears. Over the years in Rome I had met several
of the program’s doctoral students in medieval art. I applied. In the summer
of 2003, sitting in my office behind closed shutters in an overheated and deserted
Rome, came an email calling me for an interview at the Rutgers campus. I did
not hesitate a second to book my flight.
Less than one year passed between when I got the wonderful offer to come to Rutgers,
to this September when I found myself driving up Route 27 to teach my first undergraduate
class on early medieval art. I was never myself an undergraduate in America and
during my four years at the Danish Academy, I was mainly doing research and administration,
so this was truly a new challenge. My experiences from teaching undergraduates
in Denmark and Germany could not, I soon found out, be directly applied to Rutgers.
Generally, the European way of teaching classes is less regulated and controlled.
As a teacher, you do not really keep track of the number of students in your
class. So first I had to ask myself: what is a roster? And what are special permission
numbers? Why did I get all these email excuses for not coming to class because
of a sick grandmother? Quickly I learned that the number of students in the class
kept constant throughout the whole semester. One advantage of this, it became
clear, is that you stay in closer contact with the students. There is more of
a team-work aspect to teaching here, because you do more than just come in and
lecture. In comparison with European students, American students seem more stressed
and pressured, but they are also more aware of what they are doing and for what
purpose. This can make it easier to work with them. For some, obviously, the
course is just an instrument for getting a good grade, and the topic itself has
less priority. But others discover something on the way and in this dialogue
with students, I met some really interesting and creative minds! Coming from
Denmark where all hierarchical structures and polite ways of addressing the teacher
completely vanished in the wake of 1968, it was odd to hear myself suddenly being
called “doctor” and “professor!” But then again, compared
to Germany where the students are called by their last names, the American university
hierarchy seemed less rigid.
Coming to Rutgers has truly been an extraordinary experience. It has reinforced
my belief that the drive to create new and different settings for oneself can
be productive, inspiring and creative. I rarely miss my morning coffee at Piazza
del Popolo, and that says a lot! For this I can only thank the wonderful working
conditions at Rutgers, the students and, not the least, all my colleagues who
have been extremely helpful and kind in facilitating my step across the Atlantic
Ocean.
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 Department of Art History
Voorhees Hall
71 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Tel: 732-932-7041
Fax: 732-932-1261
Catherine Puglisi, Chairperson
Erik Thunø , Undergraduate Director
Susan Sidlauskas, Graduate Program Director
Cathy Pizzi, Department Administrator
Geralyn Colvil, Student Coordinator
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