Meet Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Burns of the Politics Department!
This Valentine’s Day, we are highlighting Dr. Kimberly Burns and Dr. Daniel Burns, one of UD’s integral professor couples.
A.S.: How did you meet?
K.B.:We met in grad school. We both started the same year for our PhDs at Boston College, and we met on the first day. We started a reading group together, and, by the second semester, we were running a reading group together and arguing like an old married couple while still dating other people. We did not date until my husband was offered the job at UD.
D.B: Then, I decided in March of 2012 that I was in love with her. I wanted to ask her out anyway, and we just have to work it out. And a priest friend of mine said, “You just had that interview at UD. It’s not fair to ask a woman out when you don’t even know where you’ll be. You gotta wait ‘til you hear back from UD.” So that was two weeks that I had to sit on that and not say anything to Kim. And during that two weeks, she told me that she had decided to start her RCIA (Right Of Christian Initiation for Adults).
K.B.: By that time, we had gotten closer. Dan was learning German, and I lived in Germany for a year, and my roommate at the time also spoke German. So the three of us would have these German dinners together to practice our German. It was fun. And sometimes my roommate couldn’t make it. And this led to Dan inviting me to church with some of his friends–including the Berrys. So there were some gears processing before either of us made any moves or declarations or anything.
D.B.: One hour after I accepted the job, I asked her out.
K.B.: And then we were married not long after that. One year.
A.S: Has your relationship influenced your teaching in any way?
D.B.: I mean, you could ask Dougherty, who was the chair. He hired me as a single guy. He definitely thinks that having kids mellowed me out in the classroom.
K.B.: We have fairly different teaching styles because when you’re a teacher, you have to play the instrument that you are. So we have different attitudes in the classroom. Although, of course, we’ve been talking about the same books for 15 years.
D.B.: 18 this year, darling.
K.B: So I’m sure we have a lot of similar ideas about that sort of thing, just because we’ve been talking about it for so long.
D.B.: We come to each other for advice. She’s talking about something that she does in class, and I say, “Well, you know, when I teach class, I do it this way.” And she’s like, “That works for you, it wouldn’t work for me.” And it goes in both directions. We know that about each other.
A.S.: Is there anything you both enjoy doing outside of academia?
D.B: There’s a lot of things just as a married couple, especially one that likes their kids as much as we do, that you end up doing together, even if they’re not necessarily things you would choose to do. Our biggest hobby that we still make a little bit of time for is to read books and talk about books together.
K.B: As for hobbies, we had a lot of kids quickly, and we didn’t have much time married before the kids came along. So I’m looking forward to finding out what we’re like on the other side of young children.