Little College on the Prairie

Back in the Bay, with thoughts of snow-covered Grinnell behind me, here's my report. Compared to Penn State, the interview process at Grinnell was intense: hour-long meetings with every member of the Spanish department (there are only 4, but still) in which I was grilled on every possible classroom scenario and how I would handle it, as well as prompted for my new, creative, innovative additions to a number of syllabi that are suffering from 20th-century Peninsular Literature Depletion. That's where I come in: Dr. Brenneis, ready with your Contemporary Spanish Literature injection.

I also taught a class on the Mexican mural movement, which I previously knew nothing about, but now I've got visiting Diego Rivera's two murals in San Francisco on my agenda before I leave. And then there was the job talk, which went well, though I saw some glazed-over undergraduate eyes, so I tried to hop around a little more than usual while delivering it. And I met with members of the Executive Council, who, contrary to what I had imagined, did not wear long, flowing hooded capes and speak in Darth Vader-like rasps.

Grinnell's an interesting place: the pre-tenure faculty prefer to be called "early career faculty" (instead of junior faculty), and have founded an informal group called the FLM (Faculty Liberation Movement) through which they go to Grinnell's one non-undergrad bar for happy hours and take jaunts to Iowa City for cultural inspiration. I was briefed on the death-and-dismemberment policy (by the benefits woman who's maybe a few years older than I am and who told me she has six kids -- six kids!! She tossed this information off like she was talking about a litter of cats), which I found fascinating because apparently body parts are valued differently, and the insurance company maintains a map of the body with the prices of each of your members, should they get lopped off on the job. I thought this tidbit made for good cocktail hour chatter, but other 'early term faculty' at a reception later that day didn't find it quite as fascinating as I did. The Dean likes to ride his bike even when it's 10 degrees outside. They're pretty much just giving away houses in Grinnell. "Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup" is a delicacy offered at the local fine-dining establishment. Still, they have a movie theater, which we didn't have at Wesleyan, and they even reserve one screen for "art" movies (this week it was "Dreamgirls," not exactly my definition of an art movie, but better than "Big Momma's House 17" or whatever).

So, if you're keeping score at home, that's 2 flybacks down and one to go. I'm looking forward to not being on a plane for a couple of weeks, and eating vegetables...