Note: I only ever applied for one tenure-track position before I left academia for a career in IT. This is the cover letter I attached to my application. Looking back, it is a neat encapsulation of many activities and ideas that were significant in the first decade of my post-college life. (DL Sept. 8, 2021)
I am writing to apply for the position of Professor of Literature at Houston Baptist University. I believe that my professional training and research potential, my breadth of teaching experience, my personal commitment to a classical focus in education, and my missions-oriented cross-cultural experience make me an excellent candidate for the position.
My professional training in Spenser studies has been excellent. My dissertation director, David Lee Miller, is a widely-recognized Spenserian who is currently co-editing a forthcoming complete edition of Spenser’s works for Oxford UP. While serving for two years as his research assistant, I had the opportunity of contributing to that project, learning at first hand scholarly skills necessary to build a successful literary edition. That experience led directly to my own dissertation project, an edition of an unpublished manuscript (a Latin verse translation of The Shepheardes Calender) that I came across as a part of my work on Dr. Miller’s project.
This manuscript project carries significant publication potential. I have introduced it to Spenserians and neo-Latinists at several conferences, and the response from my peers has been uniformly encouraging. Following my first presentation of the project in Kalamazoo in 2008, I received two offers of publication on the spot (one of which is still being negotiated) as well as a subsequent invitation to sit on a panel of scholars for a roundtable discussion of Spenser and genre at the 2008 Sixteenth Century Society and Conference where the project could be introduced to a wider audience. That the University of South Carolina agreed to fully underwrite my participation in that session testifies to the significance of the invitation.
Yet while my research has focused on the works of Spenser, I have always sought to be a generalist in the classroom. During my M.A. studies, I specifically sought out courses in TESL and linguistics so that I might more effectively teach English in an overseas or missions environment. At the start of my Ph.D. work, I sought out Latin as a means both to broaden my understanding of English literature within the broader stream of Western literary culture and also to deepen my appreciation for the linguistic underpinnings of the English language. And despite a minor in medieval literature, I devoted almost a third of my doctoral elective course selections to 19th-century American literature. In each instance, I have built upon this generalizing course work with experience in the classroom teaching the material. I have spent several years teaching ESL, both in the States and overseas; several years teaching Latin, both at the university and secondary levels; and two years teaching secondary American literature.
Solid research requires focus; solid teaching requires breadth. I have sought to cultivate both.
More significantly, however, these varying professional emphases are collectively the outgrowth of two aspects of how I understand the purpose of education.
I am committed to the liberal arts, both privately and professionally, because I accept the standard defense of the humanities: that the primary purpose of education is to humanize, rather than simply to equip for work. Human beings, taken collectively as a creation made in the image of God, are capable of great communicative versatility, creative intelligence, and artistic sensibility—these attributes are an essential part of humanness, properly understood; yet they are not entirely innate. They must be honed and refined by attention to and reflection upon the best products of communication and art that human beings have produced. It is for these reasons that a sound education, even in our age of genetic science and digital communication, must be founded upon a fundamental familiarity with the essential fruits of human creativity—with the humanities; otherwise instead of educating men and women for good citizenship and Christian service, we risk producing dehumanized workers who are more easily subjected to abuse and manipulation by others. A properly founded education, therefore, will build upon the wide range of human products in the classical tradition. I have been and continue to be committed to continually acquiring such an education for myself and transmitting such an education to others.
But in a larger sense, a defense of the humanities which leaves out a sense of humankind’s spiritual responsibilities before God cannot be complete. Milton wrote in his treatise Of Education that “the end … of Learning is to repair the ruines of our first Parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him.” It is because of this relationship between true knowledge, the knowledge of God, and active service to God that I have long seen my educational mission in terms of Christ’s great commission. I have taught in Christian schools and in churches, both here and abroad, because I want to be not humanizing merely, but making disciples of Jesus. It is in this context of cross-cultural disciple making that I understand HBU’s commitment to cultivating a strong global focus. I believe that my priorities and experience in this regard will enable me to instill in my students a global and missions-oriented perspective in whatever field of study we engage.
In light of these qualifications and experience, I respectfully request that HBU consider me for the open position on the English faculty. I would be happy to answer any questions via e-mail, phone, or Skype. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
David J. Lohnes