Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? What life experiences have influenced your teaching at UMUC?

Eva Allen:

I have been an art historian since 1971. I first taught at the University of Maine, Portland right after I received my master's degree from the University of Oklahoma. I have been teaching at UMUC since 1991 and developed several art history courses through the years. This is my primary job, although occasionally I am asked to teach elsewhere such as supervising graduate research at Johns Hopkins. I wrote our first online art history course, ARTH 370 History of World Art, part I, a 300 level survey. We have tripled our enrollment with this course and it has been offered since 2002 spring year-round with three sections in the regular fall and spring semesters.

I have been always interested in teaching both young and mature adults so naturally I was drawn to UMUC. I feel tremendous respect and admiration for those who can juggle their many commitments as do most of our students. I want to share my knowledge with them and give them the same opportunity for learning that any traditional student receives. I went through my Ph.D. program as the mother of a young child, holding various jobs, and caring for elderly family members. It takes great resolve to attend classes after a hard day's work, to care for family and children, and to devote nights and weekends to study.

Interviewer:

Please tell us if you teach face-to-face, online, or both and explain what made you choose that format of teaching.

Eva Allen:

I taught face-to-face classes for a number of years and enjoyed every minute of it. The courses I developed at UMUC were quite successful throughout the nineties. However, it became apparent to me that online education would be the future so I started to enhance my-face-to face classes with �WinTycho� as soon as the program was available to me, I believe in 1996. Then came WebTycho for art history in 2001 when we developed ARTH 370. Since 2003 I have only taught online. I love it. The virtual classroom is just as exciting for me as the real life one. I never feel that I talk to a screen but rather to people who are just the same present for me as if I were talking to them in the classroom.

Interviewer:

What do you find most satisfying about teaching in your chosen format(s)?

Eva Allen:

There is a great variety of material one can exploit through electronic media for art history. Textual and visual sources improved a great deal through the years. I still emphasize to my students that nothing takes the place of original artwork above all, and I send my students to museums as much as it is feasible. I am an avid museum person myself. In my face-to-face classes, in situ museum visits were always included. In my online courses not everyone has the opportunity for museum visits at the time they take the course. However, the course will prepare them for that opportunity later on. My students come from everywhere. Where I have ones who are able to visit museums and archaeological sites in their locality, I encourage them to do so and share those experiences with their classmates online.

Interviewer:

What do you find challenging about teaching in your chosen format(s)?

Eva Allen:

The biggest challenge with online, as with face-to-face courses, is to get students interested early on and to have them stick with the course. Though the online format is familiar to many, some students who are taking an online course for the first time are tentative in their participation. However, after students start to look at beautiful images, they usually warm up to the challenge. There is also a popular misconception one has to defeat in an art history course. Some students think it will be an easy course with less work than, for example, a business or science course. I follow a rigorous curriculum and set high standards which at the end draw appreciation from serious students.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline�how long have you worked in or taught it? What made you interested in the area? What keeps you interested in the area?

Eva Allen:

I wanted to be an art historian since I can remember. Old friends in my native country, Hungary, laughingly recall how already at 12 years of age I said I would be an art historian. I loved to look at beautiful images in all media and learned a great deal from my grandmother who was an avid museum person and a true connoisseur. She and my grandfather owned a notable collection of paintings from famous late nineteenth and early twentieth century Hungarian artists that were a fine introduction to art for me.

When I came to this country I lived in New York City where the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art became homes. I studied at New School for Social Research (now New School University ) where I took painting with Raphael Soyer, a very fine draftsman, painter, and printmaker who was part of the American art scene through the 1930s and 1940s. He knew the East Village scenery well and depicted it over and over again during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. In my BA and MAA programs I continued with studio apart from art history. I was always interested in the creative process and wanted first hand experience. I believe that makes me a better art historian.

I had a wonderful grounding in art history, however. I studied with Dr. Erna Mandowsky She was a disciple of Erwin Panofsky and Charles de Tolnay, two great art historians, who really established the school of iconography in art history in the early part of the twentieth century. In my Ph.D. training, Dr. Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. of the National Gallery of Art and the University of Maryland at College Park has been a great influence on me. He is a foremost scholar of Johannes Vermeer.

Although I am a universalist at UMUC, my special field is 17 th century Northern baroque art and Renaissance prints. I get a great deal of pleasure in knowing more about my special field, for example, 17th -century Dutch art or the prints of Albrecht Durer, than other areas of art history. Within Dutch 17th century painting I am most fond of Haarlem landscape which has long been a fascination for me. I do research in my special field and keep up vigorously with current issues. I attend discipline specific meetings. A few colleagues of mine, all from the Department of Art History and Archaeology at College Park, formed a group called Salon 24. We meet about every two or three months at each other's home and talk about our present scholarly activities and offer suggestions and critiques. I really enjoy the intellectual interchange and comradery.

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Eva Allen:

I believe any learning experience should be also fun. I could describe my teaching philosophy shortly as the heuristic method. I hope to bring out rather than "dump in." I believe true learning occurs when students go after something they wish to know, rather than for me to tell them the ready answer. I guide them in their quest and support them along the way. I know the joys of coming upon something on one's own rather than being told. I also strongly believe in learning from my students who often have great talent and valuable experiences of their own. I always say, I must stop teaching in the minute I refuse to learn from my students. This will not occur.

Interviewer:

Please explain if you do something special or unique in your approach and how you developed that approach. What do you think it is about your approach that appeals to students?

Eva Allen:

I ask questions with prompters to help my students to get started. This tactic appears to work in most cases. I keep a continuous dialogue with my students and make them aware that I respect their efforts and that I am always there to help. I get back to them promptly and answer their inquiries fully and readily. Interaction with my students means a great deal to me and I work for it.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Eva Allen:

I would encourage any student who aspires to be an art historian to go for it! It is a wonderful discipline. However, one needs to be inquisitive and find out what is there today in the field. As in most disciplines, art history has also expanded and there are many related areas students can train in and be effective. I would tell them to always set their goals high, perhaps a bit higher than they think they are capable of. Do not be satisfied with mediocre work.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Eva Allen:

To new faculty I would say make students aware of your devotion to your discipline and the seriousness of your endeavor. Be not afraid of admitting to mistakes. Encourage and inspire rather than preach. Do not be ostentatious in displaying your own know-how. Students will pick up on modesty more readily than profusion. Keep abreast with your discipline and your research. Above all, never lose your willingness to grow.