Adele Davidson ’75 will always be an important part of Kenyon history, as the first alumna to receive tenure in the English department. Since returning to the College to teach in 1985, she’s made a name for herself specializing in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and poetry, comedy and the literature of the Reformation.
Recognized at least year’s Honors Day with the Trustee Teaching Excellence Award for senior faculty, Davidson has served multiple times over the years as director of the honors program and resident director of the department’s off-campus study program at the University of Exeter.
She took a moment to share a little about what brought her to Kenyon in the first place and what led her to return, along with reflections on growing up in Tennessee and going for walks in Gambier with her cat, Geoffrey.
Besides Gambier, where is your favorite place in the world to be?
The government-built, Manhattan Project home where I grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee — where my mom lived for more than 70 years till she passed away in 2024 at the age of 99 — on the edge of steep woods near a National Scenic Wilderness Trail.
Why did you come to Kenyon?
According to the 1970-71 Cass and Birnbaum Comparative Guide to American Colleges, Kenyon “almost fiercely asserts its pure liberal arts emphasis.” As an undergraduate I came for the liberal arts and stayed for the English. I had great professors — Gerrit Roelofs P’79 H’86, Perry Lentz ’64 P’88 GP’20 H’09, Galbraith Crump H’90 et al. — and always thought I would like to return here to teach.
Fill in the blank: My experience at Kenyon would not be the same without ______.
All those who give their all, day by day, tirelessly, without fanfare, to sustain and nurture this caring community: Many thanks!
What is your favorite Kenyon tradition?
Commencement — the baton of knowledge, the diploma, passes to a new generation, and families are sprinkled like human confetti across the green lawns. I also love the late-night gathering of alumni to sing College songs on the steps of Rosse Hall during Reunion Weekend.
What Kenyon class would you love to take — again or for the first time?
I never had a class with the late Professor of Religious Studies Don Rogan, but he and his wife, Sally, became close friends and mentors after I returned here to teach — I wouldn’t have made it through my years here without them, and I wish I could take any course from Don.
If there was a soundtrack to your Kenyon experience, what song would be on repeat?
1. A favorite from College days, the haunting mezzosoprano of Salli Terri with Laurindo Almeida on guitar in “Bachianas brasileiras, no. 5-Aria.”
2. A Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) song popular in the ’70s when I was a student at Kenyon, “Morning Has Broken” — a poem by an early 20th century woman writer, Eleanor Farjeon, turned into a hymn, sung by a convert to Islam, recently performed at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival to a crowd of 100,000.
3. I have surreal memories from the 1997 Kenyon Exeter Program, walking toward downtown Exeter, and suddenly, loudly, from out of nowhere, above the houses, filling the skies, came the melody we know as the “Kokosing Farewell” (“Old Kenyon we are like Kokosing”). As it happened, huge loudspeakers outside Exeter Cathedral were booming out the melody, which is also an Anglican hymn, to an overflow crowd gathered for the funeral service for Princess Diana.
Where do you find satisfaction outside of your work?
My cat Geoffrey takes me for a walk up and down the quiet street (Allen Drive) where I live in Gambier. He sees so much in his feline delight!
What is something interesting that you have read recently?
Double-spaced, 2,500-word minimum, critical sources, bibliography: amazing what my amazing students come up with to fill to overflowing my reading time — inspiring. For the upcoming 250th anniversary — in April — of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Robert Gross, “The Minutemen and Their World”; this book also has information about the family of Philander Chase’s wife Sophia. Also “Super-infinite” by Katherine Rundell — an edgy biography of John Donne — and Johanna Drucker, “Inventing the Alphabet.”
What new skill would you like to learn?
Conflict resolution and mediation, negotiation skills, consensus building.
What is the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?
My mom ended our nightly calls with the sign-off, “Lots of love — that’s the main message.” Also, advice from Shakespeare: “[I]f the while I think on thee, dear friend, / All losses are restored and sorrows end.”
The Kenyon Ten is an occasional question-and-answer feature that highlights students, faculty and staff.