Susan Naramore Maher

Women's Archive Project Visionary

by: Carol B. Vande Kerkhoff

As the visionary behind the Women’s Archive Project (WAP) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), Dr. Susan Naramore Maher’s contributions to the campus and her profession are innumerable. Inspired by the many women who started their education at UNO, Dr. Maher wanted to honor those women who negotiated barriers to achieving their dreams of higher education. Dr. Maher emulates the drive and desire needed to challenge the status quo and carve a place for herself in the world.

Sue's Formative Years

Attending college was never optional for Dr. Susan Naramore Maher. Even though her mother was a homemaker, she instilled within all of her children the importance of higher education. Dr. Maher’s mother came from the family who founded Oberlin College, the first college in America to admit women, and she herself earned a teaching degree in special education. However, these progressive ideas often clashed with the traditional roles society expected of women and with the path Dr. Maher’s mother eventually chose. Dr. Maher acknowledges that her mother was quite happy as a wife and mother, and she wanted that same happiness for Dr. Maher. Growing up in a conservative but loving family, Dr. Maher recalls, “I had a mother who really felt strongly that I should be thinking about marriage and children and all of that…my mother envisioned that I would be following the path that she had followed.” Although this conventional avenue for women was typical of the time, Dr. Maher’s confusion about gender roles along with her mother’s mixed messages caused her to question the “traditional arrangements in families and in women’s lives” as both she and her mother adjusted to the time period of the 60s and 70s. Determined to carve out her own route in life and find a direction she could call her own, Dr. Maher ultimately pursued a path that differed from her mother’s. However, her mother’s influence was never too distant once Dr. Maher began to realize women could have careers and families; that women didn’t have to have a family unless they wanted to; and that women had options and could be in control of their own destinies. Dr. Maher would undoubtedly be in control of hers.

Raised in upstate New York, Dr. Maher graduated from Liverpool High School and was a New York State Regents Scholar. She chose the University of Albany for undergraduate school and majored in English with a minor in Art and Art History. The transition to urban campus life was a new experience for Dr. Maher, and she remembers it affecting her in ways she did not anticipate. Because she came from a suburban community with little diversity and most of the other students on campus were from New York City, Dr. Maher was a minority. Exposed to a diverse student body for the first time, Dr. Maher embraced it and turned it into a valuable learning experience. Dr. Maher determines that “one of the most important things that happen to a person when they are in college is learning to live with all kinds of new people. That becomes a significant part of your education.” In fact, Dr. Maher challenges young people to meet new people—especially in this globalized world of which we are apart. Dr. Maher became friends with many students who lived in other parts of the United States (U.S.), and she often traveled home with them during college breaks. These friendships helped spark the travel bug that Dr. Maher still has today.

Another formative occasion for Dr. Maher during undergraduate school occurred her junior year when she had an opportunity to study abroad at the University of Nottingham in England. Transformative and exciting as it was, Dr. Maher had to adjust to a school system that was vastly different from anything she had experienced before. England’s collegiate school system is not interdisciplinary; instead, students focus on one area only, their major, and all courses are yearlong. As an English literature major, Dr. Maher received a prodigious reading list that she was expected to complete on her own as preparation for the final exam. All lectures were optional, and students met twice a week with a graduate assistant for collaborative work time. Dr. Maher had to adjust quickly to the independent learning style of the U.K. system, which she describes as being much like graduate school; but for her, it was a confidence builder as she excelled within her concentrated area whereas many of her friends struggled.

Her year in England further exposed Dr. Maher to even more diversity. Nottingham was a working-class city with many immigrants from all over the world. It had a unique dialect that was difficult to understand. However, Dr. Maher made new friends and began to understand the different perspectives and life experiences of the women to whom she grew close. Dr. Maher remembers meeting a young woman from Iran as well as a woman from South Africa who had escaped from the apartheid and was studying to be a lawyer. The kind of oppression these women lived under was something Dr. Maher herself did not experience, and it opened her eyes to how the world worked. Additionally, Dr. Maher learned that many Europeans did not think too kindly about the U.S. Because tensions remained high over the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam, Dr. Maher sometimes worried that people saw her as representative of the worst of the U.S. and not the best. Despite this, Dr. Maher describes her year in England as “amazing.” Dr. Maher readily encourages young collegians to take advantage of these types of study abroad opportunities. Dr. Maher insists that her year in England affected her for the better.

Passions for Reading and Writing Awakened by the Adventure Story, "Treasure Island"

Since reading the seafaring adventure story Treasure Island, Dr. Maher knew she wanted to be an English teacher. Written by Scottish writer Louis Stevenson, this novel captured Dr. Maher’s attention as a young girl, spurring a profound love of literature. According to Dr. Maher, it was “the first time [she] had ever imagined [herself] into a story,” and something clicked. From then on, reading and writing became her passions along with drawing and painting. The one caveat to Dr. Maher’s teaching career was her strong dislike of the education classes she had to take. However, because Dr. Maher was committed to controlling her path, she dropped education and majored in English. After completing her undergraduate degree, Dr. Maher chose to attend the University of South Carolina for graduate school.

She studied nineteenth-century British and American literature and graduated with an M.A. in 1979. From there, Dr. Maher enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For her dissertation, Dr. Maher analyzed Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and “its permutations through two centuries.” This comprehensive analysis “allowed her to examine a powerful cultural myth in a cross-generational, trans-Atlantic way.” Additionally, Dr. Maher’s minor in Children’s Literature influenced her project as she “was able to weave in analysis of Victorian and Edwardian boys’ books and popular culture, of ideological constructs of boyhood and masculinity, and of acculturation and Empire” (“Dean” 1). It is, perhaps, not very surprising that Dr. Maher chose Robinson Crusoe for her dissertation since that other maritime quest, Treasure Island, had so piqued her interest and imagination.

Once she finished her Ph.D., Dr. Maher spent time with her two young children, delaying her professorial career for a time. The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska when her husband accepted a position with the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). Although Dr. Maher completed a three-semester stint as a visiting assistant professor of English at UNO, she did not become a full-time professor until a few years later once she and her husband returned from Norway after he completed teaching there for a period. When administrators offered Dr. Maher a tenure track position that focused on women’s literature, Dr. Maher began what would be a storied and influential professorship at UNO, rising well above the moniker initially placed on her, “The Women in Literature” Professor. Her more than twenty years educating thousands of students as well as leading the Department of English as Chair have undoubtedly left a lasting legacy at UNO. 

Some of the first classes Dr. Maher taught included Women’s Literature, Short Story, Introduction to British Literature, and First Year English 115 and 116. Shortly after her appointment in the English department, Dr. Maher applied to and was approved as a faculty member within the Women’s Studies Program. Dr. Maher then taught introductory Women’s Studies courses, such as Introduction to Women’s Studies in Literature. Although she was trained as a British Victorianist, Dr. Maher became fascinated with the history and culture of the Plains, particularly its literature and, most notably, women writers from the western United States and Canada (Johanningsmeier n.p; “Dean” 1). Her interest in the Plains transferred to her teaching, and Dr. Maher then developed courses that concentrated on literary voices such as Jane Austen and Willa Cather. Dr. Maher contends that creating courses focusing on the literature and writers she loved was one of her greatest joys as an instructor because she was able to put her “heart and soul” into her work.

Some of the classes Dr. Maher implemented included Women Writers of the West, Writing a Woman’s Life, and a Jane Austen Seminar. She also taught Great Plains Literature, 20th Century Western American Fiction, Victorian Literature, American Drama, and American Environmental Literature. Dr. Maher gravitated toward Willa Cather, continuing the tradition started by her predecessors of teaching about this famous Nebraska writer. According to her colleague, Dr. Charles Johanningsmeier, “Dr. Maher regularly offered well-subscribed graduate seminars on Cather, wrote about Cather, and made numerous presentations throughout the state and region on Cather’s work” (E-mail). Most notable was Dr. Maher’s presentation at the 11th International Cather Seminar in Paris, France. By this time, Dr. Maher was a fully tenured professor, a rarity for a woman at the time, and ready for a new challenge in her professorial career.

Dr. Maher's Imprint on UNO’s Department of English

In 2005, Dr. Maher served as Chair of the Department of English. Within a very short time, Dr. Maher’s enthusiasm and progressive leadership created a collaborative atmosphere that her colleague, Dr. Bob Darcy, asserts “did not exist before” (E-mail). One of her first directives as Chair was to organize a department retreat—the first ever—to tackle “questions relating to curriculum, mentoring at all levels, and the department’s new strategic plan” (Darcy). According to Dr. Darcy, “This retreat revealed early to members of the department Sue’s leadership style and the characteristics of the departmental culture she hoped to create: inclusiveness, equity, innovation, vision, and developmental self-reflection” (E-mail). Although she only taught one class per semester, Dr. Maher’s responsibilities as Chair were not only numerous but vital to the success of the English department. Faculty members describe Dr. Maher as “a fierce advocate” and “deeply supportive of virtually every forward-thinking initiative” brought by department members (Darcy). Dr. Maher reflects on the importance of the Chair guiding the department, supporting other administration staff, creating initiatives, and acting as a liaison between other faculty members. In collaboration with the department, Dr. Maher helped revise the English department’s strategic plan, began a major overhaul of the undergraduate curriculum, restructured and updated the British Literature curriculum, and garnered support to regenerate the dual-enrollment programs with local high schools. Dr. Maher believes the relationship between the English department and area high schools is vital as it draws more students to UNO for post-secondary study. There is “no aspect of the department today that does not have Sue’s imprint on it,” argues colleague Dr. Darcy (E-mail).

Dr. Maher argues that one of the most important aspects of her responsibilities as Chair was to hire new people who would have a lasting impact on the department. Dr. Maher was responsible for hiring four tenure-track faculty, one special faculty development hire, and one full-time non-tenure track faculty member. Dr. Maher says that seeing instructors like Dr. David Peterson, Dr. Kristen Girtin, Dr. Ramon Guerra, and Dr. Tammie M. Kennedy transition from assistant professor to fully tenured professor is immensely rewarding. Again, colleagues praise Dr. Maher’s commitment to hiring highly qualified individuals to become members of the department who also brought it much-needed diversity. Dr. Darcy allows that Dr. Maher’s hiring practices “have gone a long way toward establishing a positive reputation about our department among the newest generation of the academy” (E-mail). Moreover, Dr. Maher was not only responsible for evaluating all the professors in her department but was also in charge of meeting with deans and other chairs to discuss issues that affected the university at large. This collaboration allowed Dr. Maher to envision a broader picture of the university that extended beyond the English department. She was able to understand “issues that affected everyone across the UNO campus… [which] forced me to see the community here from a much larger perspective than I normally would” (Darcy E-Mail).

This broadening perspective impelled Dr. Maher’s interdisciplinary participation in notable organizations on UNO’s campus as well as those that reached into the community. Dr. Maher established an Honoring Fund through the University of Nebraska (NU) Foundation that provides students with the funds needed to travel to national conferences. Because she perceived a need for students to gain experience presenting at national conferences, Dr. Maher personally contributed to this fund so that students would benefit. As Dr. Darcy attests, “This admirable philanthropy on Sue’s part has further established the culture of giving that the English Department faculty are known for, and it further cements our understanding of ourselves as committed to sharing and pooling resources and fighting for improvements for the weakest members of our group” (E-mail).

Dr. Maher is also actively involved with the Loren Eisely Society (LES) and the Willa Cather Foundation. Dr. Maher serves on the Advisory Board of the LES, which commemorates Nebraska writer, Loren Eisley. (Loren Eiseley website) The LES disseminates curriculum that teachers use as a means of incorporating Eisley into their instruction. Dr. Maher has also produced numerous scholarships on Eisley. Dr. Maher is currently the President of the Board of Governors of the Willa Cather Foundation. She worked tirelessly to secure Cather’s My Antonia as the selection for the “One Book/One Nebraska” program, which is an affiliation of The Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB). The NCB “supports programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word” and “brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book. We are the people who know and love books, and who value the richness they bring to our lives” (“Center”). When My Antonia was chosen for the One Book program, it coincided with the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Willa Cather Foundation. 

Dr. Maher's Exceptional Work Noticed!

Dr. Maher’s exceptional work on behalf of the English department and the University has not gone unnoticed. In 1997, Dr. Maher earned the University Excellence in Teaching award, which came with a $1,500 scholarship. This award was “established in 1969 to recognize superior efforts, dedication and exemplary conduct in the performance of the University’s first task—the education of its students” (“Excellence”). That same year, Dr. Maher won the Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award in Arts and Sciences, which honors distinguished teaching in the classroom. In 2007, students and colleagues nominated Dr. Maher for the Mary Ann Lamanna Award for Excellence in Women’s Studies. This award “recognizes extraordinary service” to the UNO Women’s Studies Program and “can involve teaching, research/creative activity or service” (Kahdahl 1). Dr. Maher was recognized in all three areas. This award was especially humbling for Dr. Maher as she was nominated by not only her colleagues and friends but her students as well. In their nomination, one student wrote that Dr. Maher “often teaches courses focused on female authors—from Jane Austen to Willa Cather to current writers—and encourages her students to submit papers to major conferences. Of her students at that time, nine had continued into Ph.D. programs and countless others have attended scholarly meetings” (qtd. in Kaldahl 1). Dr. Maher’s dedicated interest in her students’ achievements is commendable as showcased by the award.

Also in 2007, Dr. Maher won the prestigious Peter Kiewit Professorship in English. The Peter Kiewit Professorship is awarded based on outstanding performance in research/creative activity and teaching and recognizes both a nominee’s professional scholarship as well as their teaching. This award comes with an annual $5,000 stipend that allows recipients the funding needed to continue valuable research and production in ongoing scholarship. Since receiving the award, Dr. Maher, along with co-editor Thomas P. Lynch, completed a book contract with the University of Nebraska press for the publication of Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eisley. She also published four articles in scholarly journals. Dr. Maher held the professorship for three consecutive years. Dr. Maher also achieved national recognition in 2008 when she received the Susan J. Rosowski Award for outstanding teaching and creative mentoring from the Western Literature Association. (Western Literature Association) According to its website, “the Western Literature Association (WLA) is a non-profit, scholarly association that promotes the study of the diverse literature and cultures of the North American West, past and present” (“About”). Named for long-time WLA member and the University of Nebraska - Lincoln’s Adele Hall University Professor, Susan J. Rosowski, the award recognizes “outstanding teachers and mentors in the field of western American literature” (“About”).

Birth Of The Women's Archive Project (Wap)

As UNO prepared for its Centennial Anniversary in 2008, Dr. Maher found herself on a task force with friend and colleague, Dr. Deborah Smith-Howell. As they leafed through archive pictures stored in the UNO library, Dr. Maher was awed by the multitude of photographs from early in UNO’s history that showed women studying and learning. In the early 1900s, women lived in a culture that discouraged their attendance at college. Dr. Maher was fascinated with the documentation that showed women furthering their education despite social mores. That is when the idea came to her—what if, during this spirit of commemoration, we honor those women who regularly negotiated barriers in order to achieve their dreams of higher education? Originally, Dr. Maher envisioned one hundred profiles—one for each year of UNO’s history—believing this was an innovative way to highlight the history of these women, the UNO campus, and the state of Nebraska. Thus, the Women’s Archive Project (WAP) was born.

As a self-described “ideas” person, Dr. Maher immediately collaborated with other people who could carry this idea to fruition. One of the first people Dr. Maher turned to was Peter Sather, the Director of the Service Learning Academy. Since the SLA already promoted collaborative approaches to projects that involve academic learning, the WAP would fit nicely with their mission. Additionally, Dr. Maher turned to Dr. Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Both of these groups offered to help implement projects into their curriculums as a means of encouraging and promoting these profiles, and soon, students began writing some of the first profiles. Dr. Maher believes the project was transformative for the original students who worked on these early profiles. It was important for these students to see the intergenerational connection with women who could have been their grandmothers. Dr. Maher was especially intrigued by the stories that surfaced through this archival research, stories about women who wanted so badly to have the same education that a man could have that they would cleverly work around various obstacles. For example, one woman loved science but because women were not encouraged to major in fields that were traditionally reserved for men, she majored in home economics instead. It may not have been the study this woman originally craved, but she was able to share her love of science with the students she encountered while teaching home economics.

The WAP was just taking root when Dr. Maher left UNO to accept a new position. Dr. Tammie M. Kennedy and Dr. Tracy Bridgeford have become the co-editors of the archive and, as Dr. Maher states, “It’s in good hands.” The WAP began to look like Dr. Maher had originally envisioned it to be—an interactive, digital archive where visitors can learn about women’s contributions to UNO and the larger community. Co-editors Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Bridgeford unveiled the updated website in the fall of 2012 with a special premiere. Meant to be collaborative from the start, Dr. Maher never intended the archive to be closed but hoped it would grow as more women left their mark on UNO’s campus. Perhaps the next one hundred years will provide students with more women who use a post-secondary education to spur them to greatness.

Looking Forward to New Challenges

In July of 2010, Dr. Maher accepted a position with the University of Minnesota-Duluth as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. (University of Minnesota Duluth) Although leaving UNO after nearly twenty years was bittersweet, Maher looked forward to new challenges. As Dr. Maher advises, “Expect to have a varied and unpredictable career path in this globalized world and know that knowledge of all kinds of things is probably your best ticket to a successful future.” Besides her duties at Duluth, Dr. Maher is currently working on a book titled Deep Map Country: The Literary Cartography of the Great Plains that is set to be published in early 2014. The book analyzes nonfiction writers of the Great Plains and the central and north plains, from Loren Eiseley and Wallace Stegner to modern writers William Least-Heat Moon, Julene Bair, and Linda Hassestrom.

Dr. Maher categorizes the book as part of an environmental genre because she is focusing on a group of writers who write deeply about a particular place they love or have deep roots. According to Dr. Maher, the book “will provide a synthesis of these writers using theories of time and space developed by a number of literary theorists and cultural geographers.” Maher continues by stating, “Steeped in ironies of loss, these deep maps also serve to re-establish worlds that have been lost, to show us ways of honoring a diminished space, and to resist the larger culture’s neglect of the rural center of America.”