Interview with BU alum and current faculty member Professor Vic Overdorf conducted late September 2022
Q: When did you attend Butler and what was you major?
I graduated from Butler in May 2017, having transferred from a different college in Wisconsin. I double majored in what is now our GHS and history. I didn’t end up declaring my history major until my junior year.
Q: How did your time at Butler impact your future and where you are right now?
In so many ways. To start with, when I was at Butler, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet and was participating in undergraduate research. I became passionate about the topic that I ended up doing my dissertation on, and when I realized that I had such a passion for research, it became clear that it was something that I wanted to pursue as a career path. I don’t know that I would have gone to grad school unless I had participated in undergraduate research here. The fact that this department has such a strong emphasis on research was helpful to me. I think that’s only developed more recently in this department.
Q: Tell me about your dissertation.
My dissertation was on a group of gay men who were incarcerated in Alcatraz in the 1930s through the 50s. When we think about Alcatraz, we usually think of Al Capone or Machine Gun Kelly or murderers. You usually don’t think about gay men. My research looks at how these men ended up there, why nobody knew about it, and what their experiences were like. Many of them underwent psychological experiments and medical experiments. My research looked at these things and explored their treatment. That project started at Butler. I was doing a paper for a class. I was trying to find a topic, and I knew I was interested in thinking about how gender structured the prison system. I was looking through some online archives, and I came across a file for a man who was incarcerated in Alcatraz and was only charged with sodomy, which I thought was odd. I looked online and was able to see just from the list of prisoners and their crimes that there were about twenty-eight more men who were only incarcerated for sodomy. The department was able to fund me to go visit the archives to see if there was something going on, and there was, which was invaluable, especially because I wouldn’t have pursued that research unless I’d been encouraged by the department.
Q: What did your path look like after graduating from Butler?
Right after Butler, I entered the doctoral program at Indiana University Bloomington in gender studies. I’m now going into my sixth year as a doctoral candidate, likely to get my PhD within this academic year. I moved to Bloomington and loved it, but I’m glad to be back in Indy.
Q: Why did you return to teach at Butler?
After teaching at IU for a couple of years, I wanted to see what it would be like to teach a student body similar to my time at Butler. I always appreciated when I was a student here how curious all my classmates were and how, especially in those upper-level classes, people were working so hard and were interested in answering the questions they had about the materials. The smaller class sizes here were really interesting to me because at IU I was teaching mostly larger classes. That’s why I came here, for that experience. Also, the faculty members here are incredible. As I’m sure you know, the bonds you create with faculty really do last, and they help so much with developing projects. I knew that if I came here, it would be a positive and collaborative scholarly community, which is something I knew I really wanted. When I’m deciding what to do when I’m on the job market, looking for more permanent jobs, I thought this would be a good place to do it. It’s great teaching here.
Q: What’s your favorite part about working here?
Oh, I want to say Trixie [Dr. Deno’s dog], but I don’t think that’s a fair answer. My favorite part about teaching here is that when I come to class, students have questions about the reading. There’s not this one-way stream of knowledge, it’s a two-way stream. I have questions for students and students have questions for me—I learn things from my students just like they learn from me, I hope. I look forward to going to class every day because I know that people are going to be engaged with the material. I’m sure other universities are like that, but I think it’s special to Butler.
Q: Do you have any advice for students thinking about pursuing a future in research or teaching/academia?
In terms of research, I would say it’s never too early to start doing research. Research kind of sounds like a big word, sounds like you have to do things a certain way, but research can be as simple as hearing something in class that you want to know more about and doing some investigation on your own. You never know when it’s going to lead to something life-defining or life-changing. That’s kind of how I found out, so I would say to get started early. Look through the faculty page on the department website and see what different faculty members are doing. If there’s someone doing something that you’re interested in, just set up a meeting. Faculty are always super excited to talk about research and help students with research projects. I’d also say to pursue grant opportunities to go do research. Not only does it look really good on a resume, but it also allows you to do things you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to do.
To the second part of the question, going into teaching and academia, on a personal note, if you want to go into academia for teaching, it’s tough to get a job. If there’s a certain type of job you want and you know that academia will help you get there, then it’s really valuable. For teaching, as an undergrad and a grad student, it was always interesting to ask my professors what their approach to teaching is, figuring out how their lessons come together, how professors decide how they want to approach any given class, and what the decision-making process looks behind that. That’s how I developed skills valuable for teaching: Observing my professors and asking them questions like, why did you switch gears halfway through class, why did you decide to do that? I think that’s particularly valuable, especially if you want to get into teaching.
Q: Do you have anything else to add?
Something unique about Butler, I think, is that the scholarly community here is not just a faculty reality, it’s also a student reality. We’re all reading, writing, and learning. So, making time to go talk with faculty members and other students in your free time about the stuff you’re reading and the stuff you’re interested in, bouncing ideas off of each other, is a cool thing. I know that on the faculty side, we really enjoy bouncing ideas off of students and hearing what students are doing. I think that’s very excited. Sit in the main office and see who’s in there and just chat! The third floor is a magical place. There’s always something interesting going on.
I don’t think there’s anything in terms of grad school that would be helpful to say. I’m happy to talk to anybody interested in applying for grad school about what the application should look like, what grad school is like, if it’s best to take a year between or if it’s best to go right there. I’m happy to talk with people about that!
Q: Finally, I was told that you do trapeze! Tell us about that!
Bloomington, Indiana used to be a circus town, and there are what I believe to be families of the people who started those circuses who still live in Bloomington, so there have been several break-off little circus schools. When I was in Bloomington, it was just a thing people did. I got involved and tried all sorts of things, like the silks and the aerial hoop, but I just really love trapeze. It’s so fun. I’m not excellent at it, but I’m decent, and it’s just good exercise!
I’ve yet to join a place since I moved up here, so I’m looking forward to doing that. I never saw myself as a very graceful person, so getting into that was fun. It’s very meditative and a good workout.