[For this year’s annual Cville series, I wanted to highlight a handful of inspiring and impressive profs at my hometown school, the University of Virginia (beyond the UVA prof who will always come first in my heart). I’d love to hear about profs—teachers, advisors, mentors, colleagues, friends—you’d highlight in comments!]
I ended
yesterday’s post noting that while the University of Virginia and
Charlottesville alike have been far more consistently conservative and white
supremacist than youthful Ben believed (or at least hoped), there have also
long been activist individuals and communities in both settings who have
modeled inspiring alternatives. I don’t think there’s any current UVA professor
who does so more clearly and impressively than Dr.
Jalane Schmidt. There’s a lot I could point to in support of that argument,
but given everything that’s come to define Charlottesville over the last five
years, I would particularly single out her awesome walking tours, co-led with
her colleague Dr. Andrea
Douglas. If Cville and UVA are anything (and they are many many things),
they are literal and symbolic landscapes on which so much of American history,
identity, and community are inscribed. Which makes having experts to help us
read and analyze those landscapes a pretty crucial goal, and I don’t know any
more expert such perspective than Schmidt’s.
Next UVA
prof tomorrow,
Ben
PS.
Professors you’d add to the weekend post?
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