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Ireton Answers A Question Of Balance
Sean Ireton, now married and the father of a two-year-old son, Aidan, enjoyed hiking with his family this summer in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming.Sean Ireton '88, a young professor living in the Pacific Northwest, has taken his scholarship to new heights as he balances his love of German literature and philosophy with the call of the wild.
"I grew up hiking in the Adirondacks, so living in a wilder, less-populated region has always been a personal preference," says Ireton, originally of Schenectady, NY. Now assistant professor of German at Washington State University in Pullman, he routinely ventures into the Pacific Northwest backcountry.
"I travel and camp with my family, but I also hike alone. It gets you away from the artificiality of the world. You're living with what's on your back, very simplistically, for your next meal, your next sleep."
Ireton's enthusiasm for German language and literature as an undergraduate led him to complete immersion in the culture. He spent a year and a half studying at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, before finishing his undergraduate degree in 1988. That same year, he returned to Germany with a Fulbright scholarship to study the works of Klaus Mann, son of famous novelist Thomas Mann. Between 1989 and 1991, he attended the University of California at Davis to complete his master of arts degree in German. Ireton once again returned to Germany where a new interest absorbed him--philosophy, particularly the works of Nietzsche, Heidegger and the Existentialist movement. He studied privately while taking some time off from graduate school.
"I've always been a voracious reader," says Ireton. "The time off helped me to refocus and rededicate myself to my true intellectual interests. I returned to the United States in 1994 to complete my doctorate and chose the University of Washington in Seattle. I liked Seattle's diverse, enlightened culture, and the university's graduate German program allowed me the flexibility to pursue freely my interests in both German literature and philosophy. Many programs do not allow this crossover."
In December 1998, Ireton received his Ph.D. and continued to teach as an adjunct faculty member at the university. But like many schools, the University of Washington will only allow its graduates to teach for two years. This propelled Ireton into the most challenging part of the academic life--the job search.
"It's tough--the interviewing, the competition, the lack of choice you have in your destiny, particularly in location. These are the most unappetizing parts of it," he says. "And, of course, you are without a regular source of income for awhile." But for Ireton, the achievement of academic freedom and the chance to lead a life focusing on teaching and knowledge were worth it.
Climbing alone through the tall timber and shadowed forests of the Cascades, you round a bend in the trail to notice suddenly that you are standing in the personal space of an adult black bear. Head down, rooting through the ursine delicacies that only a rotten stump can offer, the bear is just slightly too preoccupied with its snack to notice your arrival. But, in split seconds, the bear looks up, squeals and runs into the forest. Fight? Flight? It all races by too quickly to analyze. Man surprises bear, bear surprises man, bear runs... this time. A strange experience, but one that typifies the simple, raw, unmediated experiences that clear and refresh Ireton's mind--the perfect foil to the bookish scholar, the necessary balance in his life.
With a touch of nostalgia, he also says that the town of Pullman reminds him of a German university town, with the university located on a high hill with the town below. Whereas Germany lacked the wild places, Pullman is close enough to the mountain trails of Idaho and western Montana to draw Ireton from the books and classrooms to a life lived more directly, simply, without interpretation -- existence before essence, an existentialist philosopher might say.
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