{"id":205040,"date":"2014-01-28T09:31:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T14:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=205040"},"modified":"2023-09-25T09:35:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T13:35:32","slug":"neag-alumna-uses-expertise-in-workplace-politics-to-write-compelling-fiction-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/01\/neag-alumna-uses-expertise-in-workplace-politics-to-write-compelling-fiction-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Neag Alumna Uses Expertise in Workplace Politics to Write Compelling Fiction Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those familiar with UConn\u2019s Storrs campus or the Neag School of Education won\u2019t necessarily see familiar places or faces in \u201cShadow Campus,\u201d a mystery thriller about a young college business professor found hanging in her office on the eve of her tenure decision.<\/p>\n

Yet author Kathleen Kelley Reardon, a former UConn associate professor who in 1971 earned a BA from the Neag School, believes anyone familiar with the behind-the-scenes politics of academia will recognize the atmosphere, challenges and attitudes that led to fictional professor Meaghan Doherty almost dying. Above all, however, she hopes readers of her debut novel will be entertained and surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, for most professors, academia hasn\u2019t proven to be as deadly or dangerous as what happens to Meg in Shadow Campus,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cBut at some schools, like at many organizations, there can be some pretty ruthless workplace politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Published in August, \u201cShadow Campus\u201d is Reardon\u2019s first novel, but it\u2019s not her first book. It\u2019s also far from the first time she\u2019s tackled office politics. Now a professor of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California (USC), Reardon is the author of nine non-fiction books and articles in leading journals, including the\u00a0Harvard Business Revie<\/i>w focusing on workplace politics and power. \u00a0A leading authority on persuasion, negotiation, leadership and interpersonal communication, she is also a featured political blogger for the Huffington Post.\u00a0 She was integral to founding the Starlight Foundation, for which Reardon designed social technology (an early Facebook) to link critically ill children and their families to medical information, education support and entertainment, and is co-founder of First Star, a college preparatory program she originated to provide abused and neglected foster teens with academic training, and life skills instruction needed to succeed in college.<\/p>\n

Much of her research has focused on the hidden dynamics of how political power is wielded in the workplace, and particularly how that affects women\u2019s advancement. The latter is a main theme of \u201cShadow Campus,\u201d though Reardon views the novel and its soon-to-be completed sequel as not so much a change in her professional focus, but as a natural segue in her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always included stories as part of my books and teaching,\u201d said Reardon, who for six years taught in UConn\u2019s Department of Communications Science. \u00a0She was a Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board and Phi Kappa Phi graduate. In 2013, she was honored as\u00a0UConn Alumni Humanitarian of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStories are a marvelous way to communicate, because they entertain while they reveal information,\u201d Reardon continued. \u201cIn my classroom and non-fiction books, I share stories of people I\u2019ve met and interviewed, and those are what students or readers tell me they remember most. In \u2018Shadow Campus,\u2019 the story and people aren\u2019t real. But the fictional characters, and what happens to them, are extrapolated from experience. The overall story comes also from my imagination, which is an aspect of the project that\u2019s been very exciting. It\u2019s been a wonderful challenge and act of creation that\u2019s allowed me to return to my love of the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kathy<\/a><\/p>\n

That love has also inspired Reardon to recently return to painting\u2014something she used to teach as a volunteer to chronically ill patients. However, much of her current focus is on writing the sequel to \u201cShadow Campus.\u201d On leave from USC and living in Rhode Island, she\u2019s also been spending time working with First Star program funding and developing the UConn and University of Rhode Island sites.<\/p>\n

But unlike when Reardon was writing \u201cShadow Campus\u201d and no one but she and her husband Chris, also a UConn grad, knew her fictional characters, Reardon now has fans. And many of these fans are anxious to know what\u2019s next for Professor Meg Doherty, her estranged brother Shamus turned novice detective, Meg\u2019s coworker Rashid and other characters, who according to one Amazon reviewer create an \u201caddictive novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of readers like and connect with Shamus,\u201d Reardon said. \u201cAnd now, he and all the other characters have become real people\u2014especially to my husband and me. \u00a0They live with us. Some writers like to work in isolation, but I like to talk about my ideas before I write, and Chris has a keen writer\u2019s sense. I\u2019m actually really excited to see what happens to Shamus in this next book, because he really is a work in progress. He\u2019s a guy who grew a lot in \u2018Shadow Campus,\u2019 and who will grow and change even more in this next book.\u201d<\/p>\n

In much of the novel, Connecticut residents have the extra fun of seeing Shamus in his hometown of Ridgefield, Conn. Reardon grew up in Stratford, Conn. But Chris was a journalist for\u00a0The Ridgefield Press<\/i>, so they spent a lot of time in this quiet, historic community. People familiar with Los Angeles, Santa Monica and other California locations that figure prominently in the story will also experience a familiar sense of place.<\/p>\n

The sequel to \u201cShadow Campus\u201d will be set in New York and Connecticut. Reardon hopes it will be ready to release in the fall of 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cReaders have asked to get a new book in their hands soon. That\u2019s motivating. \u00a0A good story is told well, and I\u2019ll want to make sure Shamus and all his wonderful imperfections hold their interest again,\u201d Reardon said.<\/p>\n

Whether the next book tackles more of the potential extremes of office politics has yet to be seen. But it\u2019s clear that for those who work in a large organization, there\u2019s a side benefit to reading \u201cShadow Campus.\u201d As Shamus learns just how scary pathological official politics can become, so does the reader. Calling on Reardon\u2019s extensive expertise in this area,\u00a0Forbes<\/i>\u00a0magazine recently explored this kind of frightening scenario in an article called \u201cWhy Office Politics Can Ben Deadly \u2014 And What to Do About It,\u201d which also reviewed \u201cShadow Campus\u201d and called it a \u201cmasterful debut mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a debut novel, which means it\u2019s not perfect,\u201d Reardon said, \u201cbut what I want more than anything is for it to be a story that keeps people turning the page. One of many enjoyable things about fiction is that different people take away different things, and for me the whole process has been a joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting, she also credits the Neag School for the novel\u2019s creation: \u201cWhen you think about it, the Neag School of Education is really responsible for its success too. UConn shaped the path I\u2019ve been on, leading me to become a high school teacher, pursue my master\u2019s and PhD, eventually go to California and teach, and gain the experiences needed to create Meg, Shamus and the whole story of \u2018Shadow Campus.\u2019 \u00a0UConn is where the seed was planted and continued to grow when I returned as a Communication professor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those interested in learning more about \u201cShadow Campus,\u201d Reardon\u2019s nonfiction work or reaching out to her can visit her website at\u00a0www.kathleenkelleyreardon.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those familiar with UConn\u2019s Storrs campus won\u2019t necessarily see familiar places or faces in \u201cShadow Campus,\u201d a mystery thriller. Yet author Kathleen Kelley Reardon, a former UConn associate professor who in 1971 earned a BA from the Neag School, believes anyone familiar with the behind-the-scenes politics of academia will recognize some attributes of the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":205041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-205040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 04:41:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205043,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205040\/revisions\/205043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/205041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205040"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=205040"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=205040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}