Associate Professor of History Steven Issac is surrounded, not unlike many Longwood professors by his field of study. The mixture of pre-renaissance art and the booming music sung in French and Briton demonstrate to all visitors that his field lies, as the Longwood University website states, in Medieval Europe, military history, Islamic civilization and Ancient Greece.
A professor at the university since 2004, Issac earned his Masters and, in 1998, his Ph.D at Louisiana State University. Teaching at the school for a year, Isaac moved on, in 1999, to a five-year stay at North Western University in Iowa. After what he described as "five years of mid-western winter," Issac stated, "I had to get back south somehow, so I went looking for jobs and chose them all based on geography." In the end, with a choice between Longwood and a position in Hawaii, Isaac decided to choose the former. In the end, he said that Hawaii was the wrong direction for his work and that, "Hawaii would be beautiful and wonderful but […] they were going to offer the exact same salary and the cost of living out there is essentially double."
When asked how his interest in "things medieval" began, Isaac couldn't find a time when he wasn't interested. However, his interest was truly ignited when, in the seventh grade, Isaac read both Ivanhoe and Lord of the Rings. Issac stated, "I'd have to say that those two books simultaneously set me on the path."
Being led to his current position at Longwood by these dual fantasies in his childhood, Isaac spoke on the realities of being a teacher at the school. He said that the biggest thing about his enjoyment of an academic position was his like of being able to teach and converse with students. Isaac stated, "Being in the classroom is fabulous. I like presenting new material [and] I like it when students find something in new material that is interesting for them. Not just because they're going to be tested on it but because it says something interesting about being people, about being humans, […]citizens together and understanding something about each other and the past ."
Stating that many of his students help to start conversations and express interest whether in the classroom or in his office, Isaac said that he had some students who he feels should go on to graduate school and some who should consider the position long and hard before hand. Because of the current economic situation, the fact that the field of history is "crowded" and the subsequent lack of jobs, Isaac said, "I have a responsibility to talk to everybody saying, ‘look follow your dreams […] If you want to go to graduate school because you really have to go to graduate school then go. And don't look back. Don't regret it. But if you're going because "oh that might be a fun job" or "that might be a way to pay the bills," you might want to reconsider.' There's a lot of student debt piled up and not a lot of jobs but if you're doing it for the love of learning. Go for it."
Dr. Isaac also spoke shortly about his part, along with colleague Dr. Tracy in the English and Modern languages department, in organizing the medieval conference "Meeting in the Middle". Composed of presenters from a flurry of fields including art history, history, archaeology, musicology, of course literature studies, the conference gives a chance to be the best in the field, "top flight" students from other universities including Longwood to express the impression and history of the middle ages.
Listing accomplishments including progress on the publication of a book and the acquisition of a Fulbright Grant to visit France's University of Poitiers and study medieval documents, Isaac stated, "I've been lucky." Issac said the history department "stepped up to the plate to support me [when I was] going off to do that research. At the same time, we keep our priorities in the class because that's what our mission is to serve the students I hope the research and the teaching will always work together. So far they have resources at Poitiers gave him documents from the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. "[…] things called cartularies. These were collections of deeds, wills and titles all kinds of bureaucratic [documents.] What I was looking for were hints and clues of times of violence because what I was [studying ] was the experience of urban populations with siege…What I was looking for was hints and clues of how people dealt with that."
Leaving Dr. Isaac's office was as pleasant a time as having come in and, genial to the last, he asks for someone to thumb his or her nose at fellow history Professor William Holliday. Isaac insists that Holliday will know it's from him.
