Faculty: Allison Schuette-Hoffman

 

Professor Schuette-Hoffman's teaching specialties include creative non-fiction.

Professor Schuette-Hoffman joined the Valparaiso University English faculty in fall of 2005 after receiving her MFA in creative nonfiction from Penn State University. So far, one of her favorite features of VU is the small campus atmosphere; she enjoys bumping into students in settings outside the classroom, something less frequent on larger campuses.

Professor Schuette-Hoffman compares her teaching philosophy to the advice Adrienne Rich once gave to college students: “…you cannot afford to think of being here to receive an education: you will do much better to think of being here to claim one. One of the dictionary definitions of the verb ‘to claim’ is: 'to take as the rightful owner; to assert in the face of possible contradiction.' ‘To receive’ is to come into possession of: to act as receptacle or container for; to accept as authoritative or true. The difference is that between acting and being acted-upon…” As a teacher, Professor Schuette-Hoffman strives to give her students the tools to act. Her teaching specialties include composition and creative writing.

Outside the university, Professor Schuette-Hoffman spends time shopping in second hand stores for retro furniture as well as old fashioned hats, gloves, coats and purses. She also enjoys biking, cooking and baking, DIY crafts, NPR, keeping up with far flung friends, and throwing tin foil balls for her kittens to chase. When she reads, she reaches for the likes of Frederick Buechner, Barbara Kingsolver, Annie Dillard, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, and David Foster Wallace.

Professor Schuette-Hoffman serves on the Wordfest committee and as co-adviser for Alliance, the GLBT student organization on campus.

Her partner, Kevin Hoffman, teaches in Christ College. They share a cozy bungalow with their two little monsters, Monkey and Sideways.

Professor Schuette-Hoffman has published creative non-fiction, poetry and book reviews. She is currently working on a book manuscript about living with Graves' disease.

Personal blog

This American Life

Fresh Air

Studio 360

Brevity (an online journal of short-short creative nonfiction)

Slate Magazine