Survey of Architectural history Survey of Early American history American Sacred Space The Greater Caribbean
Q: What is the best aspect of teaching at U.Va.?
A: Really the opportunity to do teaching and research. One of the things I am really enjoying about my graduate seminar this semester is the opportunity to throw graduate students right at the front line of current research and to add some of my own research, which is in the process, to the mix. So it is really serving as a research seminar in a way that I think is really pretty exciting. I like teaching classes at two ends of the spectrum. I love working with cutting edge research with graduate students, and I like teaching the first semester first-year undergraduate survey. I like being the first face that undergraduates see, and I like the opportunity to introduce them to a whole range of worlds via architecture which they probably haven't had the opportunity to visit.
Q: What is your favorite architectural wonder?
A: I tend really to be excited about buildings not because of the way they look but because of the way people use them or people invest in buildings. So my choice of a favorite building for me would be anything from a Quaker meeting house to a 17th century earthfast house in Virginia, none of which survive. But you know them through the archeological records. For me, there are really interesting questions wrapped up in these houses that tell us about people. But from a purely visual standpoint, I am going to have to say the Pyramids, only because I love the fact that the ancient Egyptians had such a fascination with the other world. And also, they are just extraordinarily stunning constructions.
Q: What kind of house do you live in?
A: I live in a 1955 ranch house on the north side of the city which I like quite a lot. My house is a mark of the economic expansion of the city in the 1950s. Whole neighborhoods went up as a way of accommodating Charlottesville's expansion. And it is a really small house and as we look to the future, we have three young children, I am caught in a sort of philosophical bind. Am I willing to compromise the integrity of this little house I like so much to accommodate my expanding family?
Q: What is the most unusual structure you have ever studied?
A: Well, let me answer that by telling you about the most unusual circumstances in which I've studied a building. My dissertation was a comparative analysis between churches in Jamaica verses churches in South Carolina. So I spent a summer recording 18th and early-19th century churches all over Jamaica. And that means going to parts of Jamaica that tourists don't ever see. And my father was with me, and in one instance we were headed up into the hills to see this one church which we finally got to. But on the way to the building, we are in a very small car and we turn the corner and there is a huge bulldozer that is blocking the road. Right as we pull up to the bulldozer, this man comes out from the bush next to us and he is waving a yellow flower and he has absolutely no clothes on. He walks up to the car and he is speaking in this incredibly thick dialect that I am just barely catching. So this man walks up to the car with absolutely no clothes on and standing right next to my father, my father is completely panicking at this point. He is saying move the car but I can't move the car. There is a bulldozer in the road. And we found out later that he was actually the traffic cop and waving the yellow flower was waving a yellow flag of warning. He was trying to warn us that something was blocking the road. So he was actually doing us a favor but we didn't realize that until afterwards. And as soon as the bulldozer moved just enough, I floored the car and squeezed between the overgrown bush on the left and the bulldozer on the right.
Q: What is your dress attire to class?
A: I do wear bow ties to class every day to teach. It is just part of who I am. I try to be as accessible to my students as I can in my lectures, and I try to be very personable. But at the same time, I like to try to say something about the distinction between teacher and students. I am sort of always negotiating that difference. But I learned how to tie bow ties in Charleston, South Carolina decades ago.
I have 30 bow ties, probably. I mean I have straight ties. I just tend not to wear them so much. The nice thing about bow ties is that you can eat your soup and your tie never goes in your soup. And if you drip something, it goes on your shirt and it is a lot cheaper to dry clean a shirt than to have a silk tie cleaned.
Q: What is your favorite sports team?
A: Well, my favorite team in college was the William & Mary Tribe football team, which is where I went. But I don't follow professional sports.
Q: What is your favorite T.V. show?
A: "Liberty's Kids" on PBS. It is this really great series that just came out for kids. They teach serious history but they do it with comic strips and with little game shows. But they deal with really interesting questions in American history. But it is a really great way of communicating the basic questions in American history. My son and I have great conversations about "Liberty's Kids."
--
Read More
It’s okay not to be okay
By Mai Hukuoka | 2 days agoWhether talking to a friend, a loved one or a professional, it is so necessary, and human, to need more than you can provide for yourself.
Taking a break at Tangerines Kitchen
By Charley Thomas | 3 days agoWhat the restaurant somewhat lacks in ambiance, it compensates for in tasty dishes and prompt service.
Virginia Policy Lab — a hub for student-led policy action
By Katherine Haden | December 9, 2024Students propose their own projects and collaborate with other members to research their issues of interest, brainstorm solutions and write policy proposals.
