My amazing undergraduate advisor, Len Rosenband, is retiring from teaching at the end of the semester. To celebrate, the Utah State history department decided to party historian-style: by holding an academic symposium in Len's honor. As one of Len's half-dozen students that went pro in history, I was invited to come spend the week and give a presentation.
It was lovely to be back in Aggie land. I have wonderful memories of my time at USU, and it was fun to reconnect with friends, professors, and colleagues. It didn't hurt that the weather was gorgeous too!
Len's doctoral advisor was the famous (almost infamous) Robert Darnton of Princeton. I assign Darton articles nearly every semester. He is HUGE in the field. So I was delighted, not only to meet him, but to discover that he is a lovely human being. Generous, helpful, engaging, and not at all terrifying. (OK, maybe a little terrifying.) I also got to meet and talk with Brad Gregory, who is a rising star in the field of Reformation studies and who turned out to be a similarly approachable and genuinely great person.
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Darnton gave a keynote speech on blogging.
What would he think of this blog? |
Len's close friend Tom Safley was my doctoral advisor at Penn. So I got to hang out with both of the men who had the greatest impact on my academic career. It was cool, and a little bizarre, to have them in the same place. Luckily, they opted not to gang up on me.
Before and after the symposium at Utah State, I had a few days to see family. I drove up to Idaho Falls to visit with my 90-year-old Grandma Fisher then down to Orem to see my 94-year-old Grandpa Nix. They both look great. I hope I got these genes.
