A Word of Thanks from Dean Moore
Monday, November 23, 2020 – I am overwhelmed in this season of Thanksgiving with gratitude for the STH community that I love. In little more than 5 weeks, I will step out of the deanship and into a sabbatical season, followed by retirement. The immanence of departure makes me overflow with gratitude for all of you and also for the new Dean who will arrive on January 1 and will do an absolutely fabulous job in leading the School.
I am grateful for STH students who have year after year been passionate, dedicated to doing good, and compassionate with yourselves and one another. You are people who plan birthday celebrations for one another, even in quarantine, and you reach out when one of you is feeling battered or discouraged. You gather in STHSA and student groups to make good space for one another, and you create new groups when something is missing. You plan powerful Town Halls and events, and find ways to support student needs during these COVID days. In classes, you offer deep-probing questions and comments as you learn from and with one another. I was privileged to hear three of you present papers on Saturday and to read student papers this week. You folks are smart, and you live well in this journey of discovery and shared life.
I am also grateful for faculty and staff. In recent weeks, I have seen you step up to support colleagues who were ill, to support students and colleagues who were struggling, and to celebrate in others’ good news. Many of you are caring for children and vulnerable family members during this pandemic season, and all of you are having to stretch yourselves to develop new ways to teach, build community, provide library services, support students, recruit new students, and build moral and financial support for STH people and programs. The Library has created a dazzling array of new services; several faculty have presented papers and sponsored conferences that were deeply meaningful and timely; and the student-serving offices have created new ways to support students scattered across the world. At the same time, everything is harder, so your powerful classes and services have required untold hours to create. Even as you have adjusted to this small-screen season, you have attended to what is most important, setting priorities and giving your best to support the physical, psychological, and spiritual health of yourselves, your families, and the STH community. Thank you!
We are entering the season formally designated for giving thanks in the US! As with Columbus Day, we have to recognize that the dominant US Thanksgiving story has not done justice to Native Americans – the peoples who lived in this land long before white settlers arrived from Europe. The popularized story has not acknowledged the decimation of Native people that followed as the result of illnesses and domination. On this Thanksgiving, I invite you to be sober and awakened as you remember the hurts of the past and present that have not been acknowledged or justly repaired. I also invite you to give thanks for all you love, for all you hope to love better, and for your own compassion and strength to seek the good in a very difficult time. Happy Thanksgiving!
With overflowing appreciation,
Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean (she/her/hers)