Oberlin Blogs

I've never liked the term "discipline" as a way to refer to what I teach and write about. It's harsh, forbidding, army-like. I much prefer to tell people that I work in a particular field --maybe because as a kid I wanted to be a farmer.

It smells like baklava and/or cinnamon swirl glaze in my room which, although odd because there is no one in the kitchen to make either, reminds me of my pre-midterms diet and all the other things I miss about Oberlin.

Or, "This is a terrible idea!" (Inside: helpful faculty; I hate the GRE; Career Services rocks)

In high school, I did this thing called The Quote Book.

Much of the cutting-edge knowledge about the world is out of reach for most of the people who inhabit that world. But access to knowledge is a good in and of itself.

I had the good fortune of being in NYC last week when Ishmael Beah '04 and Professor Dan Chaon celebrated an evening of Oberlin mentorship.

Why were we there? How did the world see us?

The class, and the Environmental Studies department, is not Environmental Science, which is the big mistake in assumption that I made going into it. I'm glad I did.

Since several students have written about the excitement and sense of anticipation embodied in the start of the school year, I hope I won't seem too cranky in saying that Orientation always leaves me feeling at least as disoriented as the first-years.

If you are interested enough to know how clouds form, then you might also be interested to know about one of the really cool pieces of equipment that we have in Oberlin's chemistry department - a custom-built turbulent flow chemical ionization mass spectrometer.

I'm the kind of person who enjoys anticipation. I do like getting new stuff and experiencing new adventures, but I also really enjoy thinking about them before they happen.

I never knew how much Randolph Coleman meant to me and how much of an impact he has made on my life until he retired.