CAS prof didn’t plan for teaching career

PAMELA NADELL LEADING THE MARCH - Pamela Nadell, professor of history and Jewish studies, was a majorette in high school and used to twirl a baton.

Professors 101
Pamela S. Nadell, Professor of History and Jewish Studies, College of Arts and Sciences

AW: Where did you grow up?
PN: I grew up in New Jersey.

AW: What is your favorite way to relax after class?
PN: I love to cook.

AW: What do you like to cook?
PN: Dinner for my family. I cook all sorts of different kinds of foods.

AW: Besides cooking, do you have any other hobbies?
PN: I play the piano. I take Pilates classes and I walk my dog.

AW: In what area of D.C. do you and your family live now?
PN: We live in Rockville, [Md.].

AW: Where did you attend college?
PN: I went to Douglass College, the women’s division of Rutgers University, and I also spent a year at Hebrew University as an undergrad.

AW: What classes do you teach?
PN: I teach a yearlong survey of Jewish civilization, and I teach the history of the Holocaust. I teach courses in my specialty, which is American Jewish history and American Jewish women’s history, and those are in the history department.

AW: What is your favorite aspect of AU?
PN: Oh, I love the students. I love teaching. Teaching is so much fun.

AW: What is your favorite thing to do in or around D.C.?
PN: We really like to go to the theater. We have a subscription to the Signature Theatre in Arlington, which we really like.

AW: What is one thing your students or colleagues don’t know about you?
PN: I don’t know, that I used to twirl a baton. I was a majorette in high school. I’m not sure I want to own up to it. But no, I do.

AW: Did you always want to be a professor?
PN: I loved Jewish history. Did I always want to be a teacher? No, I didn’t want to be a teacher because when I was growing up and I was in eighth grade and parents had meetings with the guidance counselors, and I was told I was really smart and I had two choices. I could be a teacher or a legal secretary because I was really smart. I knew I wanted to be a professor, but I didn’t want to teach. I would have been a terrible junior high school teacher, just awful. It was before the women’s movement really burst forth and where women could imagine other possibilities, so I knew I wanted to be a professor, but I didn’t always want to be a teacher. I wanted the teaching part of being a professor but I also wanted the research and writing part, and the thinking part.