Q&A with the New Dean of the College of Liberal Arts

— As Told to Tameron Hodges

Human Resources turned the spotlight on Allison Gough, Ph.D., the new Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Gough has been a vital member of the HPU ‘ohana for nearly 17 years.  Dr. Gough hails from England, where she completed her undergraduate studies in history, politics and geography, receiving a B.A. (Hons) in Modern History from the University of Durham.  Moving to the U.S., she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from the Ohio State University.

Dr. Gough joined HPU as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History in 2001, became a regular faculty member in 2002 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. She has served as Chair of the Department of History, Faculty Assembly Chair and was the founding Dean of the Honors Program.

To find out something we didn’t know about Dr. Gough, we recently posed the following questions:

Q: What led you to higher education as a profession?

A: The journey was a long one.  Since I can remember, I was fascinated with history.  It is difficult to grow up in England, I think, without an appreciation for the past.  I loved my grandfather’s, probably rather tall, tales about his exploits as a young man—riding horses to market, as a member of a traveling theater, learning baseball from American troops in Scotland in WWII.  Some of my earliest memories involve burying my cousin’s Barbie dolls in the backyard with full regalia, in the manner of Egyptian Pharaohs.  I think they are still there under the strawberry patch.  I was also incredibly fortunate to have inspiring and encouraging teachers, even as far back as elementary school, who encouraged me early to go to university.  No one in my family at that time had ever attended college.  But I remember quite distinctly deciding to do that while standing in the line for a school dinner when I was seven!  It was probably a more inviting prospect than contemplating the cabbage they were serving that day.  Skipping forward to university, I again had some wonderful mentors who first encouraged me to attend Ohio State as a graduate student, and then to remain for my Ph.D.  My advisor at Ohio State, Pulitzer Prize nominated historian Warren Van Tine, nurtured my belief in history as a public service and as a vocation and was formative in helping me to embrace interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, something I advocate very strongly today.

Q: What has been the biggest challenge in your life?

A: Taking U’s out of words and learning American English…

Q: What are you most proud of?

A: That I have carved my own path in life and that I stay fast to my principles even if my circumstances change.

A: Why have you chosen to be part of HPU for nearly 17 years?

A: I have remained at HPU for 17 years because of the people.  I realize that might sound cliched.  But there are many staff and many faculty who have been here as long and longer than I have.  They are fully committed to HPU and to the community.  They believe in what they are doing, and it is impossible not to get swept up by that belief.  For them, the idea of ohana is not just a marketing tool: it is a commitment.  I am incredibly lucky to have found a place where I can be counted as part of a family and where every day I see acts of selflessness and kindness that sustains my faith in the essential goodness of human beings. 

Q: What led you to seek the administrative position of dean?

A: I see the position of Dean as just an extension of my life thus far.  I am passionate about education:  that is what has led to all of the great things in my life, including my jobs.  I want to ensure that others have that opportunity and I see Dean as another way of continuing to do that.  On my journey from student to teacher to Dean I have discovered different muscles.  I like to stretch those muscles and engage in challenges while at the same time having a comprehensible continuity in my life.

Q: How will you measure success as a new dean?

A: I am not sure that I can answer that question in a quantitative manner.  Rather, I think as a college, as a university, as a community we will all be successful when we are engaged, enthusiastic, and able to fully express our joy in what we are so fortunate to be doing.  That is what we need to convey to our students who are going to be our legacy to the world. 

Q: If you were not an educator, what you be?

A: Musician, poet, astronaut, vineyard owner?

Q: What books are waiting on your bookshelf to be read?

A: So many!  Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne, The Unwinding by George Packer, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Sanders, and anything John Le Carre has written lately.

Q: What is at the top of your bucket list?

A: Going into space. 

Q: What is your ideal vacation?

I love travel, and Hawai‘i has given me the opportunity to travel to Asia and to the South Pacific, which I don’t think I would have ever done if I had remained in England.  But one of the places on my bucket list is Antarctica.  Antarctica has captured my imagination since I was a child when my father, an amateur photographer, introduced me to the work of Henry Ponting and Frank Hurley who took stunning images of the region during the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton.   I would love to take a kayaking tour of the region, which seems like a really intimate way to see the most remote of continents.

Q: What is one thing that people would be most surprised to know about you?

A: I am not sure if this is a surprise, but I was trained as a classical guitarist.  When I was 16, I was encouraged to join the Royal Academy of Music in London.  I have lost a lot of my skills, but I still enjoy playing and have been lucky enough to study with David Yamasaki in Hawai‘i. He has been a great encouragement to my picking up the instrument again.