Barbara MacHaffie, Professor Emeritus, Religion

Early in my senior year at the College of Wooster (1970) one of my professors suggested that I look at the graduate program in theology/religion at University of Edinburgh. Gordon Tait had his PhD. from Edinburgh and he thought I would enjoy spending a year there.

I applied to the University and was accepted as an "overseas" student who would spend two terms (10 weeks each) at the university. My plan was to return to graduate study in the U.S.. I also applied for and received a fellowship for European study from Rotary International. I went to Scotland in the Fall of 1971 after graduating from Wooster.

Here are some of the reasons Edinburgh transformed my life:

• I received a superb education that forced me to be an independent scholar and learn research skills beyond those I had cultivated in college—using library and other resources that were different from those available to me in the U.S.—and focusing on topics crucial to the development of European religion completely new to me
• I learned how a European country (and other parts of the world) viewed the U.S. by reading the British press and listening to BBC
• I came to love another country and culture—this has spilled over into regular trips to Scotland and a course at Marietta on Scottish history (I lived in Scotland for five years)
• I expanded my world view by getting to know faculty at Edinburgh who were both committed Christians and committed socialists
• I was accepted into Edinburgh's PhD program—getting full privileges and fellowships offered to Scottish students
• I made life-long friends there who we still visit and keep in touch with
• I met and married my husband!