The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 2 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on October 16, 2020.
By Jovana Jovanovska ’23
Staff Writer
Professor Siobhan Moroney is a professor in the Politics Department at Lake Forest College. Born and raised in Oklahoma, she says she doesn’t have an Oklahoma accent after so many years spent outside of the state, although sometimes people ask her to repeat herself when she says the word “lawyer.” Professor Moroney attended the University of Oklahoma for her bachelor’s degree and Rutgers University for her PhD.
Stentor: Who is someone that influenced you?
Professor Moroney: My great aunt went to law school in the 1940s and when I was growing up she was a judge in Oklahoma. She served as a great model of a woman who persevered at a time when women were not welcomed into the professional world. When I was little my mother was a stay-at-home mother and most of the women I knew were, too. My aunt showed me another way.
Stentor: What is your favorite childhood memory?
Professor Moroney: I have a visceral memory of the moment when learning to read “clicked” for me. I was reading The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein, with my mother.
Stentor: Describe a time when you had to deal with change. How did you overcome it?
Professor Moroney: I stood up at a faculty meeting a couple of years ago and repeated my mantra: Change or die. The pandemic is requiring all of us to change, fundamentally. [It] seems like every aspect of work, family, community, is altered. (Not sure that I have yet “overcome” this as it is an ongoing process…)
Stentor: What would you want to do if you were not a professor?
Professor Moroney: I went up to my senior year of college wanting to be a lawyer. So I guess that’s a default. But I love being a professor.
Stentor: What do you consider to be one of your greatest achievements?
Professor Moroney: That I taught my children to be such fierce Scrabble players that they beat me like a drum.
Stentor: What is something that motivates you?
Professor Moroney: Political theory is not a random choice for me. My courses mostly revolve around the question of what a just world would look like and what it would take to make that happen; those are motivating concerns. My political activism takes the form of education. I want to lead students to ask questions about justice and fairness and what their obligations to their communities might be.
Stentor: If you could live in any other time, where would you want to go and why?
Professor Moroney: Only the future. I need penicillin, asthma inhalers, and central heat.
Stentor: Do you have any advice for students?
Professor Moroney: The only thing more stupid than asking a stupid question is to not ask the question and remain stupid. That’s the glib version. The more substantive version: ask for help. Seek out what you don’t know. Admit your ignorance. (As I write this, I am reminded of Socrates, and how his wisdom stemmed from his willingness to admit his lack of wisdom.)
