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SUMMER 2012 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 21
His work with Gullah culture opened the doors
for 14 veteran public school teachers to work
with him preserving and documenting Gullah
culture on-site.
“I’ve co-directed several multi-year grants that
bring teachers together to learn more about
the West African culture that remains at the
heart of African-American culture,” Rutkoff
says. “Right now, we’re creating a digital ar-
chive of Gullah oral history that will be export-
ed into hundreds of public school classrooms
in Ohio. It’s really exciting to watch teachers
light up when they realize, ‘Ah! This is where I
come from!’ My favorite part of my research is
working with these teachers.”
The widely published professor is as well
known among secondary educators in Ohio
as he is in his field. He is the director of the
Kenyon Academic Partnership, which brings
Kenyon professors and high school teachers
together to create dual-credit Kenyon courses
for the area’s brightest high school students.
Rutkoff developed Kenyon’s American studies
interdisciplinary program, which morphed into
a major in 2002. He received Kenyon’s pres-
tigious Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in
2004.
While his flame in history circles continues to
burn brightly, Rutkoff recalls where that fire
was lit. “St. Lawrence ignited my love of his-
tory as I understood it then,” she says. “My
career was profoundly influenced by two won-
derfully gifted St. Lawrence professors, Robert
Carlisle and Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj, who showed
me the best ways of teaching.”
DEFINER OF CANADIAN STRATEGY
Canton has been the ideal
location for Professor and
Chair of Canadian Studies
Joseph Jockel ’74.
He is
only 30 minutes from Canada,
a country whose inner work-
ings and military strategies
have been the focus of his research for more
than three decades. But being on campus has
been just as much about teaching students as
about his proximity to Canadian soil.
After receiving his master’s from the University
of Toronto and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins
University, Jockel returned to his alma mater
in 1980 to begin the Canadian studies pro-
gram. He has taught countless courses, taken
hundreds of students to Ottawa to visit Parlia-
ment, and mentored in the First-Year Program
(FYP).
“Teaching the introductory Canadian stud-
ies courses and in the FYP is like painting a
house,” he says. “I enjoy it because at the end
you can see impressive results. I enjoy making
a difference.”
One of the most highly regarded in his field on
both sides of the border when it comes to Ca-
nadian defense and its impact abroad, Jockel
has earned several fellowships and even spent
time working for the U.S. State Department
writing presidential speeches regarding Cana-
dian affairs.
In 2007, his book,
Canada in NORAD 1957-
2007: A History
, was published. It illustrates
Canada’s role in the bi-national command. In
the upcoming year, he’ll complete his cur-
rent research, comparing the roles of Canada
and the Netherlands in the Afghanistan War
(2001-2011) at the Netherlands Institute for
Military History of the Ministry of Defense in
The Hague.
“Every now and then, it’s good to get away so
I can interview experts and finish this chapter
of my research,” he says. “But I always look
forward to coming back.”
St. Lawrence ignited
my love of history as
I understood it then.