By William R.K. Lund
After 44 years at Edgewood College, Dr. Cynthia Rolling will retire this May. Rolling has been a faculty member at the college in the Social Science department since 1977.
Over the years, Rolling has served as associate academic dean, a member of the Human Issues Education Committee, a professor, and chair of Edgewood’s Social Science Department.
As a professor, she designed and taught 14 different courses in the areas of Sociology-Anthropology, Women’s Studies, Geography, Ethnic Studies, Interdisciplinary Human Issues, and COR. Her current courses are Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Race and Ethnicity, and a Senior Social Science Seminar.
Rolling reflected on her time at Edgewood. “I’ve had a chance to do what I’d always wanted: to teach in a small college; to develop courses and interact closely with students.”
A recipient of the James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award for Excellence in Multicultural Education, she is highly regarded among her peers.
Praise for Rolling
Bill Duddleston, a former Social Science professor at Edgewood until his retirement in 2015, said, “Cynthia’s commitment to maintaining a strong interdisciplinary orientation was her forte.”
She helped “[create] an inclusive environment” for all students, he said.
Dr. Melanie Herzog, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and professor of Art History said Rolling was someone from whom she sought advice and mentorship. “I admire and honor her as a wise and generous colleague who has helped me navigate my career as an educator, scholar, and member of the Edgewood College community,” Herzog said.
Background
Rolling graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., (her hometown) with a B.A. in Anthropology. She attended UW-Madison for her M.A. in 1974 and Ph.D. in 1982.
Rolling formed a fascination with anthropology at a young age. Her mother was a fan of the anthropologist Margaret Mead. “Maybe I picked up an interest in my eventual disciplinary focus from that exposure,” Rolling said.
Having parents that valued education was vital to her upbringing. “My mother loved teaching – working with high school students and her colleagues – and as a family we were very proud of her profession,” she said.
Her father was a machinist in a tool and die factory who strongly encouraged his children to pursue higher education.
Going to an all-girl competitive high school gave her a leg-up on the competition. “The sisters who staffed the school had high expectations of us academically and professionally,” Rolling said, “and I found that exciting.”
From Detroit to Madison
Moving from Detroit to Madison was a stark shift in Rolling’s life. Detroit in the 1950s “was an exciting place with lots of cultural diversity, great music, a lot of wealth, but also a strong blue-collar presence,” she said.
Madison was different. “Madison had much more of a small-town feel in those days,” she said. “I couldn’t believe there was a cornfield across the road from my apartment in Middleton. There was very little Motown music on the radio, but there was a daily farm report on television and cows on the UW campus. I guess there was a bit of a culture shock.”
Shortly after moving to Madison, she began her career at Edgewood College.
Research focus and retirement goals
Herzog said much of Rolling’s scholarly research looked at questions of how people perceive those they regard as different from themselves, the preservation of cultural heritage by groups who move from one place to another or who are challenged by cultural duress, and teaching about race and ethnicity in predominantly white settings.
In retirement, Rolling said she hopes to continue this work. Specifically, she plans to expand her studies of the Gullah tribe of the southeastern United States.
“I’m fascinated by them in many ways,” she said, including “the preservation of their African-based cultural elements due to the isolation of the Sea Islands where they have lived, their struggles with outsiders who have taken much of their land, the immigration of some of them to the North during the 20th century, the presence of literate Muslim Gullah enslaved people on the islands centuries ago and their impact today, and the links to African cultures in Gullah dialect and music.”
In addition, Rollings wants to “revisit some earlier work on teaching about race to white students.” She plans to work on some oral history collections and take classes at UW-Madison.
Rollings has also considered some vacationing. “I’d welcome the opportunity to spend more time on the Oregon coast and a dream would be to rent a house on the Lido in Venice some summer,” she said. “Family and friends from Edgewood welcome!”
Duddleston said his hopes for Rolling in retirement are quite simple. “I hope that she can continue to grow intellectually while she begins to operate in a more open-ended life. She will have no problems.”
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