the ethics of being cosmopolitan...

i went along to hear the inaugural lecture in the citizenship theme year at the university today. kwame anthony appiah held forth for an hour. he rehearsed familiar arguments in a navy suit with a yellow shirt -- that was a nice gesture if he planned it since people here are obsessed with blue and maize.

[as an aside, karen, shelley and i decided this past weekend, to open a french bistro here in ann arbor called maizon bleu. perhaps it will be located next to the bakery, house of pain?]

at any rate, appiah's lecture wasn't that special, although i am so sure it was dear. what was special was the walk to the lecture, entering the hall and listening to charlie introduce the dean who introduced appiah. and then looking around at the auditorium -- that probably held between 500-800 people. (it was packed). and it was great to be among them. i sat in the back row and looked around at all my colleagues, and was so pleased to be in ann arbor. and then, i took the bus back to north campus. as we pulled near my building, i really noticed the beauty -- even amid the 1970s brutalism and early 80s glass and brick and marble. there were four deer hopping across the road. and the grass was verdant. it all looked like a pharmaceutical ad it was so lush and groomed and good.

i am so stoked to back at this univ.

i had my second african american studies class today and it was great fun. i actually felt like i was teaching them something. we were talking about jacob lawrence and the great migration and his migration series. and we are working on really basic things -- description, visual analysis, interpretation, storytelling. they said some great, inspired stuff. (they also said some messed up stuff) but they were working it. and it felt good. one student asked for help on how to read...i mean here how to read actively and with engagement. another asked for help, when i chided them for undercutting their own observations by muttering, "i might be reaching here..." before they offered their descriptions and comments. she explained...we can't help it...it's not like math where there's one answer. how do we know how to interpret and understand the authors' intentions.

it was great. because they were identifying things for us to work on together and i think that we can and will take all this up. and i can help them with it.

i have a pounding sinus headache so i can't properly report on the outfits that i wore this week or the way my planning class has begun...but please know that aside from the housing sitch that blows right now because of upset in our home, i am really upbeat about this year. and i intend fully to ride the crest of this wave.

planning, in short, was good and fun and i think that the students are going to be good. they are smart and enthusiastic and committed: i have familiar and new students, and i have men and women and people from planning and social work. and i have many of them. and some handful of non-white people. some from the east and many from the midwest. i think not so many west coast people...but that's true of the program. so, it's an excellent mix. it's not clear whether there are any real libertarians or conservatives in the class which is too bad because that adds to the fun, but i am thrilled. i am in the same classroom where i began in TCAUP, but somehow i think that the students won't be quite the same as the first magical cohort i had when i was so petrified to teach and petrified that i would be found out as an impostor, but like tim gunn says, i will "make it work."