BA in Individualized Studies Program
First off, my name. It’s pronounced “Beth.” I added the “e” in fourth grade when all my friends were altering their names and mine looked so plain to me. Amazingly, Bethe Hagens was almost immediately perceived by the grown-ups (my teachers) as unpronounceable, foreign...perhaps even “entitled.” I got a little extra attention, a bit more latitude to color outside the lines. Today, I honestly believe that changing my name to Bethe evoked a kind of magical association between me and a famous German physicist named Hans Bethe. I love quantum science and cosmology, especially explorations of simultaneity and coincidence.
My best skill is asking questions, both of others and myself. A constant personal question is whether I’m on the right path? What does this even mean? With something as simple as changing my name, did I set in motion the series of coincidences that have created and simultaneously confirmed the meaning of my life? I can’t really answer, but I do know that this basic human ability to name things—to categorize and give meaning to sounds and symbols—is the mystery that lies at the heart of my practices of cultural anthropology and music performance.
Naming is in many ways a shamanic ritual. Goddard students name their own programs and take the risk of calling this powerful energy into action. This is my first semester as a Goddard faculty member, and it is an honor and a privilege to be part of the learning process with students. I have wanted to be involved with the College ever since the 70s when Goddard’s Institute of Social Ecology was a living legend in the worlds of both sustainable resources and progressive education. At that time, I was teaching media arts and environmental design at Governors State University, the experimental non-graded campus within the Illinois system. On the side, I took as much work as a jobbing violinist as I could find—everything from recording a commercial for a muffler company to being a member of the stage quartet for Rev. Jesse Jackson. In 1993, I joined the full-time core doctoral faculty at the Union Institute and moved from Chicago to rural Maine. I wanted so badly to live in the woods by the sea, and I arrived to find a home, community, and lifestyle that I had dreamed of as a child. Things are meant to be. In 2005, I wanted to be involved more directly as a U.S. citizen in the global culture, and I joined the graduate faculty of the international School of Public Policy & Administration at Walden University. I keep my head in digital arts and technology, especially their implications for political participation, while my heart continues to beat in the realm of magic and ritual performance. I am always excited to discover intersections of these worlds.
Violin has always been a major part of my life, and I’ve performed and recorded in many kinds of venues. My dad was an improv pianist. Tonalities and rhythmic patterns are native to my meaning-making capacities. I’m very interested in research on mirror neurons, especially it relates to multi-tasking. When I’m on a plane, for instance, just imagining practicing my violin in very precise ways sometimes has the same effect as working with the physical instrument. Grappling with anthropological theory mysteriously builds my violin technique and sharpens my intonation. I encourage students to pay attention to analogous discoveries they make in their own life processes. My basic belief is that any discovery actually reveals the identity of self. Connecting with that power is, for me, the promise of soul.
Education Background: Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, University of Chicago; M.A. Cultural Anthropology, University of Chicago; B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Occidental College; studies in Violin at Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University.
Website: www.missionignition.info/bethe
|
Bethe Hagens, MA, Ph.D