You'll have to excuse Jim Kilfoyle if he has seemed a bit weary lately. Having a two-month-old son at home can do that to you. In November, his spouse Susan gave birth to the couple's second child, John. They also have a four-year-old daughter, Sarah.

"It certainly is time consuming. It's difficult to remember what I used to do in my spare time," he says laughing.

Imagine, then, what his parents must have gone through. A native of Hull, Mass., he was the youngest of eight children - the first seven of which were born over a period of nine years. Kilfoyle came along four years later.

Growing up in a large family taught him a number of things. "I learned to be a good listener and to be respectful of others’ space. And with only one bathroom for ten people, I learned to take very short showers."

He also attributes his interest in the liberal arts to those early years.

"I spent a great deal of my childhood sitting at the dinner table listening to my family tell stories. To me, that was the way one learned, and it led me to think about the larger questions in life."

Kilfoyle majored in English and Religion at Wesleyan University, a liberal arts college in Connecticut. He applied for law school during his senior year, but eventually decided against going, instead choosing to clerk at a local hospital while he considered his options.

"I knew that once I worked for a while, if I missed academic life, it would be a strong sign to return." After a year at the hospital, he accepted his first teaching position at a private high school in New Hampshire that served as a tutorial school for potential Olympic skiers. "Some of my classes had only three students. It was a real learning experience for me. The salary was modest, but I got free season lift tickets!"

After two years away from school, Kilfoyle decided it was time to go back. He chose to attend Brown University, which best suited his academic interests. His studies focused on early modern and eighteenth-century British literature. "I was drawn to it somewhat because of the irreverence of the writing. There's an odd wobble between zaniness and the pursuit of decorum. I also liked the loving descriptions of excessive eating and drinking."

He says he enjoyed his graduate school experience, but because of the unpredictable job market, he wasn't always sure he'd be able to teach. "Even if I didn't find that opportunity, I thought the experience would be valuable anyway."

Although Texas wasn't on his radar screen, he applied to Southwestern "because I was told to apply everywhere that had an opening." With his strong interest in teaching a wide range of materials in a liberal arts atmosphere, Kilfoyle turned out to be a perfect fit.

He came to Southwestern in 1992. Unfortunately, Susan was still teaching in California at the time, making for a lot of frequent flyer mileage. The following fall, she accepted a position at Southwest Texas State, where she teaches Medieval Literature.

Beyond his duties as humanities chair, Kilfoyle is the president of Southwestern's Phi Beta Kappa chapter and serves as a Rhodes Scholar advisor and faculty advisor to the English Honor Society.

Over the last eight years, he says he's gained confidence in his teaching. "I feel now that what I'm doing is okay. I'm better at communicating my enthusiasm for the work and facilitating discussion. My favorite part of teaching is seeing students get rolling in a conversation about Shakespeare or a poem or whatever. Watching them put out ideas and synthesize things I've said or others have said—that's what excites me."