The Faculty Advisor of our MNSU chapter is the incomparable Rachael Hanel. Professor Hanel has a Bachelor’s degree in both Mass Communications and History, a Master’s in History from MNSU, and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in Bath, England. She is the author of over 20 nonfiction children’s books and her own personal memoir that came out in 2013 called We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger’s Daughter. She’s been teaching at MNSU since 2002 and is the faculty advisor of Her Campus and the Society of Professional Journalists on her sparse free time.
HC: Was your background here at MNSU that made you decide to come back and teach?
RH: “By having the masters degree I was able to start teaching, especially in the online environment, that was just ramping up at that time. That was enough to get me into teaching online. Thats where I was like, I really like this, I really really do, Iike teaching and I was doing adjunct work here too. Ya, I think I knew a masters degree would open some new avenues.Then if I wanted to keep teaching I needed a PhD, and the options are pretty limited within the states because they’re generally longer programs so you would have to move somewhere…so it was a matter of trying to find something that would work with my schedule where I could keep working and that would still allow me to teach and I found this creative writing…in Bath.”
HC: What made you decide to get involved as an RSO Advisor for SPJ and Her Campus?
RH: “Well with SPJ I knew that we had a chapter but I knew that as chapters will do they expand and then contract and I guess for a couple of years it was very minimal involvement. But I kept getting students who were interested in journalism and wanted to know more so I thought maybe the interest is there again and I could resurrect SPJ and try get students involved with networking and information in that profession. I thought it would be a nice supplement to classes…obviously I love journalism and I’m always trying to get students to think of that path even if it’s a path they aren’t naturally thinking of. “
HC: What was your initial reaction when Shaela Nelson came to you with the idea of bringing Her Campus MNSU?
RH: “She introduced herself and said that she was looking for an advisor, someone who was in media. I knew she had done her work to try and find a faculty member who had that experience and I thought sure why not! It sounded like such a great group, I had never heard of it before but I know it’s on this national level and there are these local chapters. Obviously too, anything we can do on campus to promote women’s voices and have something specifically for women to be talking about issues, that is important to me too.”
HC: Have you experienced any struggles with balancing being a feminist and a media professor?
RH: “When I first started to work in the industry which was 97 I guess and I was really young and and I go to the newsroom at and which was mostly men I’m like oh my god, I’m glad I have a sense of humor, you know it’s the last remnants of that Good Ol’ Boys network and I did often feel working there that there were some issues, kinda some push back if women were talking more or being out there, which you have to be as a reporter!”
HC: Do you include concepts of feminism in your media classes?
RH: “The gender stuff in media is really important to teach, so I am going to show Dream World and I am going to show Tough Guys, and I am going to include this unit on pornography because that completely is effecting societal relationships and that kind of thing. So ya I guess it is there, because those things are important to me.”
HC: When was it that you decided you were going to write a memoir?
RH: “Oh that was many, many years ago! That was in 2000 was when I first had this idea and first wrote the first things that would be in it. So it was a 13 year process between when I first started to write things and when the book came out. Mostly because I’m obviously busy working and doing other things, I don’t often get that time to write so it was a lot of picking away at it over those years.”
HC: Did you ever doubt yourself as a writer during the process?
RH: ”Ya, I think so, I feel like most of the time I felt pretty confident but towards the end when I had a finished product, and you know at that point you’re trying to get someone to publish it, and I was just striking out everywhere. I would go to agents, and I would go to editors, and no one wanted it, no one wanted it, and that was discouraging because I felt like I had a good story but then you start to think…no one else likes it, maybe it’s not very good. Then you just think I put in all that work, what’s going to happen? Is it even going to get out there? So there was a low point before an editor did take it. I think you just have to stick with it, I learned a lot about perseverance.”
HC: Would you say that’s a necessary trait for a writer?
RH: “Ya, I think that’s what sets the writers that are published apart from the writers who aren’t. I dont think its talent, i don’t think it’s writing ability, it’s just a matter of sticking with it because I think so many writers get discouraged and then they give up. So I think if you can persevere you can get published.”
HC: What inspired you to write your memoir?
RH: “There’s always thoughts in my head and these particular thoughts about growing up and my dad being a grave digger and these images from cemeteries and stuff, they were always there spinning in my head, and if they’re there after all these years that’s probably the signal that I should write about this. Ya know, it’s obviously affecting me somehow, it’s just that idea of wanting to write it because it was always in my head and then too, a story that I hoped could either help people or that people would find interesting or maybe find something in common with my experiences. Just hoping that you could make a connection with other people, with your writing.”
HC: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
RH: “If they have even an inkling that they want to write they need to pursue some program that’s going to get them writing.”
The entire chapter would like to thank professor Hanel for her support of Her Campus and her desire to strengthen the voices of women!
Fun Facts About Rachael:
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Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and History
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Master’s degree in history, both from Minnesota State University, Mankato
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She earned a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University
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She is the author of more than 20 nonfiction books for children
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We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger’s Daughter, is her first book for adults in 2013
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RSO Advisor for Society of Professional Journalists and Her Campus MNSU
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Rachael likes to “live in the past” as her music taste is stuck in 1993
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Has an actual alarm clock (instead of using her phone) and still uses an ipod
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Listens to Podcasts when she runs