Teaching at Transylvania, according to Tim Soulis, involves constant change and constant learning. \u201cYou think that after you get the Ph.D. you know it all, and you don\u2019t. You\u2019ve barely even scratched the surface. The students keep challenging us to be better than we were. And sometimes that\u2019s frustrating. But I think it\u2019s also very humbling and rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soulis enjoys teaching first-year seminar classes, which give him some latitude in the material he chooses for his students. He recently taught a course titled Performing Life that addressed the theatricality of everyday life as seen in politics, religion, games, and sports. He referenced Freud\u2019s Psychopathology of Everyday Life, which attempts to explain why we do the things we do. It becomes clear that we all play a role in our everyday living\u2014a role guided by a hidden subtext we might not even be aware of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the goals of the first-year seminars is to introduce students to a liberal arts course of study: how to see the relations and connections between disciplines and how to get away from our preconceived notions. In one class, Soulis joined the students in writing a paper where he proposed the idea of water as a \u201cuseful way to think of oneself.\u201d It\u2019s a simple conceit that captures the goal of a liberal arts education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWater has three phases: gas, water, ice. If you\u2019re ice, you\u2019re frozen into a set of views. You\u2019re unable to thaw or bend. If you\u2019re gas, there\u2019s nothing really there. Everything just dissipates. But if you\u2019re water, you can roll with the punches. You still have a type of container: the shore, the sides of the pool, whatever. But you can flow through life. And that\u2019s the ideal. The aquatic metaphor, I think I called it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You like to think that as a professor you profess your knowledge. But that\u2019s garbage. What you really do is learn with the students and try to understand the world around you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
For many years, Soulis was known for his one-man performance of the Charles Dickens\u2019 novel A Christmas Carol. He recently played Aegeus in Lexington\u2019s Summerfest performance of Shakespeare\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream. He also agreed to act in a friend\u2019s new play about the family dynamics surrounding an Alzheimer\u2019s patient, and he is writing a play of his own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soulis has also written lyrics and music for shows. In 2010, using a new translation of Euripides\u2019 Bacchae, he turned the 2,000-year-old play into a sort of rock opera, which he called The Bakkhai. Soulis wrote a simple musical schematic based on the melodies provided by the Greek scholar and modern translator Khalli Anna Mossi, and Transylvania students scored the accompanying parts and put together a three-piece band for the performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think Sophocles\u2019 Oedipus the King is just as important today as it was when it was written. And that\u2019s not because of some Freudian oedipal conflict that some person has, but the individual search for one\u2019s identity that is at the core of that play. And it\u2019s one fine detective story, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\nAcademic History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ph.D., University of Denver, 1980
M.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1975
B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1971<\/p>\n\n\n\nCourses Taught at Transy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
First-Year Seminar
Interpersonal Communication
Intro to Fine Arts
Playwriting<\/p>\n\n\n\nAreas of Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Acting and directing
Greek theater history
Shakespearean production
Modern drama
Dramatic literature and criticism<\/p>\n\n\n\nAwards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Lucille C. Little Professor of Theater endowed chair
Bingham Fellow for Excellence in Teaching
Kenan\/Jones Grant for sabbatical study in England and Greece, 2003
Irish partnership participant for Governor’s School for the Arts in Ireland, Scotland, and England, 2003<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\nPublications in Development<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
“Directing a Gender-Neutral Hamlet”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Designing a Flexible Theater Space for the Liberal Arts Drama Program”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting the Play<\/em>, textbook-length syllabus providing a holistic approach to acting<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Earthrock of Argos<\/em>, an adapted version of Aeschylus’\u00a0Oresteia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additional Information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Chair, Drama Program, Governor’s School for the Arts, 2003\u201309
AIKCU summer travel experience in Australia focusing on Aboriginal performance techniques, 2006
“Peace, Reconciliation, and Social Justice in Ireland,” BCA summer seminar, 2004<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4409,"template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Relevanssi image attachment filter Relevanssi index exclude","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"academic_division":[63,64],"class_list":["post-221","faculty","type-faculty","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSoulis, Tim - Website Experiments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/experiments\/faculty\/tsoulis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Soulis, Tim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Teaching at Transylvania, according to Tim Soulis, involves constant change and constant learning. \u201cYou think that after you get the Ph.D. you know it all, and you don\u2019t. 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