Hi! My name is Dana Thomann. I grew up in the Iowa town that boasts the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk-- a.k.a. Riverside. My uncle welded the Starship Enterprise that rolls through local parades. I often joke that I could be Captain James T. Kirk's great, great, great grandmother. Maybe the "T" stands for Thomann? While I am currently an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Rhetoric, the past definitely shapes who I am as a professional and person. My family raised pigs and farmed a few corn/soybean/hay acres during the 1980s Farm Debt Crisis, my childhood. Needless to say, we were poor. In the 1990s, my pa and ma sold the pigs (due to disease and low prices) and started a small cattle herd. To support growing the herd, my parents started building fence for locals. By the skin of their teeth, they were able to keep the farm. The herd grew to 150-head and became a premiere breeding stock operation, Trails End Angus, that prided itself on sustainable practices. The herd was sold in 2020 due to my pa's cancer diagnoses and eventual death a few months later, but he lives on, beautifully, through the newborn calves, sunsets, and strong oaks rooted on the farm. I consider the farm my sanctuary. I still actively help with a small herd of Angus, large garden, and taming our beast of a "cattle" dog that is aptly named Temple Grandin. ("Cattle" because she is truly a diva who thinks she's my human sister, not a dog.) Growing up only 15-miles from the University of Iowa, education and college were touted by my parents as a way out of literal pig-pens and financial hardship. My relationship to academia is complex-- a place where I have and have not always felt 100% comfortable. With more perspective, I think the discomfort has a lot to do with my first-generation identity-- an identity I've grown to make peace with. Reframing the identity as an abundance rather than a deficit helps. This published piece (under my pen name that is in homage to my pa) explains some of that cognitive dissonance. https://www.postroadmag.com/2020/11/24/37-dana-dean-we-must-work-on-mothers-day-to-meet-the-corporations-deadline/ My heart is with first-year, first-generation college students-- and all students really. I hope to make the classroom and college, in general, a space where students can feel brave and empowered to be themselves and find what truly motivates them-- even funky stuff has value in academia. (Love The Bachelor? Write a paper on it. Curious about death metal? Give a speech on it.) I impress this philosophy upon students because I wish I'd realized to honor my passions more fearlessly as an undergraduate. College should not be a performance for what others want or expect. It should be a time of unabashed personal discovery. In addition to "teaching" bravery, I am adapting the Learning@Iowa (https://learning.uiowa.edu/) model to the Rhetoric classroom because it reveals the hidden work of academia. The model makes equity in the college environment a reality. Thanks to Shaun Vecera and Anat Letov for that! I am a first-generation Hawkeye (Communication Studies & Journalism). I wanted to attend the University of Missouri, but my ma said it was too far from home. I believed her. (Sound first-gen much?!) I got revenge by studying abroad in Denmark my senior year (I had never been on an airplane) and moving to South Dakota for my first job with Teach For America. As my pa became sick with colorectal cancer, I moved back home to work with the University of Iowa TRiO Programs in my twenties. I earned an MFA in Creative Writing & Environment in 2016. I dream of publishing my collection of short stories so that I may someday teach Creative Writing. I also want to ride the entirety of RAGBRAI on my bicycle named Tawanda. I'm getting ever so close to building my mileage to a century ride. It's always good to have dreams and goals. Want to talk farming, the alienation and joys of academia, cattle, the first-gen identity, MFAs, loss of a beloved parent to cancer, pedagogy, cycling? I'm your gal. ;-) Shoot me an email.