USC students gathered in the Gressette Room of Harper College on Wednesday night to hear Dr. Kathryn Edwards give what they thought would be a lecture on European beliefs about ghosts, but what turned out to be a lecture on how Edwards ended up teaching at USC by following a path that she never expected to take.
Edwards's studies and courses focus on Renaissance and Reformation history with an emphasis in frontiers, religion, families and folklore. She said that if someone had told her when she was seventeen that in the future she would be a professor at USC teaching history, a class she disliked in high school, she would have been in shock.
"My jaw would have shattered from bouncing off the floor," said Edwards.
Edwards said that at seventeen she was the "queen of the five and ten year plans," and she entered UC-Davis with a plan to become a veterinarian. Despite her strict plans, Edwards switched her major to history and studied abroad at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Her studies also led her to live in France, Germany, England and several states in the U.S.
"If you roll with the punches a little bit, if you don't always follow the plan, you're going to find that the irrational things can actually make your life immeasurably richer," Edwards said.
Edwards became interested in the study of ghosts and their activities while living in Dole, France when she came across a seventeenth century manuscript called "The History of the Appearance of a Spirit." This manuscript largely influenced her second book, Leonarde's Ghost.
Edwards's story about following the unintended path inspired students in the audience.
First-year student Noah Hyduke said this lecture made him consider taking courses that he usually might not take, and that he is interested in enrolling in Edwards's course about the history of the devil.
According to second year economic and math student Angela Rogers, who helped coordinate this lecture and introduced Edwards, Last Lecture started at USC seventeen years ago when a professor who had terminal cancer wanted to give a final lecture.
Edwards was the second of three Last Lecture speakers this semester. The final one will be given in November by Bobby Donaldson of the History Department.