Dr. Dora Hawthorne
Title: Professor of English, Department Chair of English and History
Years at MVNU: 2009-2025
Degrees:
* Ph.D., English Language and Literature, The University of Chicago
* M.A., English Language and Literature, The University of Chicago
* B.A., Literature, Grove City College
Awards/Grants/Accolades/Publishing:
* Faculty Fellow, NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education), 2023-present
* President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2020-2021
* Excellence in Advising and Retention Award, 2021-2022
* Grant co-author, $10,000 NetVUE Professional Development Grant, 2019-2020
* Grant participant, $50,000 NetVUE Program Development Grant, 2021-2024
* Selected Participant, Women’s Leadership Development Institute, CCCU, 2018
* Invited Presenter, “‘Almost human’: Vocation as Humanization in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night,” Gender and the Inklings Conference, Taylor University, 2020
* Invited Panelist, “The Promises and Pitfalls of Object-Based Learning,” Sacred Space Pedagogy Summit, Calvin College, 2019
* Keynote Speaker, “Tragic Mirrors: Thinking Christianly with Sophocles and Shakespeare,” Christian Writer’s Conference, Grove City College, 2014
Campus Involvement:
* Life Group Leader, Big Sis Advice Panelist, Discernment Workshop Leader
* Faculty Advisor, English Honors Society (Sigma Tau Delta)
* Honors: Honors Faculty Council, Honors Scholars Applicants Assessor, Honors Project Mentor and Reader
* sURC (Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creative Work) Moderator, Evaluator
* Committees: General Education Committee, Teacher Education Council (TEC), Internal Review Board (IRB) Member
* Faculty Book Group Leader
* Curriculum Steward for COR1012 (Discipleship of the Christian Mind), 2010-2020 and COR2003 (Exploring Vocation II), 2022-2025
Biography:
Dr. Dorothea Hawthorne has faithfully served as a full-time faculty member at MVNU for 16 years as Professor of English and more recently as Chair of the Department of English and History. Her prolific knowledge of English literature (well, literature in general) is manifest most evidently in her teaching of courses such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Core Conversations (sequence in the MVNU Honors program), British Literature, Studies in Authors: C.S. Lewis, Discipleship of the Christian Mind (first-course sequence in MVNU’s General Education Core), and Exploring Vocation I (second-course sequence in MVNU’s General Education Core). Most importantly, Dr. Hawthorne was a co-author of one and a participant in two NetVUE grant proposals which helped to launch MVNU’s recent Vocations I and II sequence for all students – a portion of the General Education curriculum that helps students clarify their calling and cultivate habits that support lives of meaning, contribution and purpose while also engaging in MVNU-sponsored service opportunities or service-focused mission trips.
Dr. Hawthorne’s breadth and depth of knowledge regarding literature is astounding; most conversations with her will result in a quote, a dialogue, or an explanation of how her field of expertise intersects with Christian faith and calling, and that knowledge is not lost on her students and colleagues alike. Dr. Hawthorne is widely regarded as having one of the most brilliant minds on campus. She is also just a wonderful human being - kind, creative, funny, and principled. Her departure from MVNU will be profoundly grieved.
Dora’s Testimony:
I have been drawn to professing Jesus Christ and English literature at Christian universities because I love connecting faith and literary studies—in the classroom, with students, in my own life. Literary study for Christians is grounded in belief in a God who speaks—through words written (in Scripture), words spoken (parables, psalms, prophecy) and the Word incarnate (Jesus Christ). God’s speaking dignifies human language as an efficacious instrument of divine love. Words matter to God.
I often teach George Herbert’s celebrated poem “Love (III)” in my classes: it’s a dialogue between God, imagined as a loving host inviting a guest to a feast, and a bedraggled sinner who is reluctant to enter the room. (“Ah, my dear, I cannot look on Thee.”) Every time I teach this poem, epiphanies happen. Unchurched students express surprise that at the heart of Christian faith is a God who desires our company at his table; Christian students find themselves more deeply drawn into God’s tender presence. Poetry, I find, can open doors to faith.
At its best, Christian higher education creates a space of faithful inquiry where students and teachers can sit down at the table where God is the host, where heart and mind both find welcome. The feast is the literature that enlarges imagination, vocabulary, empathy. I have stayed at this table so long because the conversation matters: searching students asking important questions, loving words, crafting paragraphs, discerning callings, holding burning hearts and probing minds together.
Dora’s Favorite MVNU Memory:
It’s hard to pick one memory out of sixteen years of teaching here. I have wept with students, learned from students, prayed with students, hiked with students, gone on field trips with students, been wowed by students’ brilliance and compassion and wit. I have had classes that were full of explosive energy and excitement (C.S. Lewis & Friends, Shakespeare, Utopia, Sayers, Core Conversations). But I think my favorite memories involve students embracing the challenge of performing scenes from Shakespeare (or Lewis): their joyful collaborations to bring his characters and language to life—to “speak the speech…trippingly on the tongue” as Hamlet says—is a legacy I will cherish. You know who you are.
Dora’s Words to Students
Students. Remember: the life of the mind and life in the Holy Spirit can be good friends. Pursue both joyously. Also: Psalm 138:8.
As you recall the impact of Dr. Hawthorne’s influence on your life and learning, it would be a welcomed gesture for you to share words of affirmation or appreciation with her in the message box below. Her unmatched intellect, thoughtfulness, and integrity have positively influenced students and colleagues alike — her absence from campus will be keenly felt!
