Linda Morse

As a very young child, Linda Morse was fascinated with Jane Goodall and her exciting experiences with chimpanzees in Africa. That knowledge led to her interest in the field of anthropology.  Morse tried to pursue business courses, but gravitated back to anthropology as a non-traditional student in her 30s and earned her Bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Georgia in 1995. Upon returning to Massachusetts, Morse decided to earn an M.Ed. at Framingham State University and teach high school history.  She earned an M.A. in History at Providence College majoring in U.S history and minoring in Asian Studies.  While teaching at Foxborough, Morse learned that many students were interested in a course on African history.  Since she had recently become fascinated with Africa during the Cold War due to a course at Primary Source in Watertown, she learned all she could about Africa over the summer and started teaching a high school course on Africa focusing on 1885 to present in the fall.  That interest in African history has turned out to have given Morse far more than she could possibly give back, leading her to earn the TAT at BU and help Primary Source with one of their courses on Africa. Teaching is Morse’s “second” career and she started teaching in 2000 as a middle school teacher, served as an adjunct professor and has been a high school history teacher at Foxborough Regional Charter School since 2006. 

Earning the TAT has changed Morse’s thinking about U.S. History.  She has  been reading and researching further about how the Civil Rights Movement was truly an international experience that began with the formation of America and continues to today.

Morse considers herself to be  a nontraditional student – she had young children upon graduating in 1995 and was born in 1958. She has a strong desire for others to know that anyone can finish college at any time. Morse saw Anthropology as a challenging field of study. She was discouraged from pursuing it by others who did not see the field as practical and sustainable and often received disparaging comments  like, “want fries with that?” In spite of those experiences, Morse sees having a bachelors in Anthropology as rewarding and is a proponent of students taking an anthropology class before leaving high school.