“Life Stories of Middlebury College” is a multi-phase initiative intended to gather people’s experiences while at the college, particularly reflections that highlight issues of diversity. In his interview, Roman Graf talks about his reluctance to teach at a liberal arts college in New England, the politics of Jeans Day, the difficulty of individual expression in a professional environment before tenure, his prejudices of small-town living, the difference between America and Europe in terms of sexism, racism, and homophobia, learning to say “yes”, why working as a diversity administrator created a daily experience of negativity, how a blind student helped him improve teaching, and why we need “theory checks” instead of “reality checks”.
People
Roman Graf
Professor of German and Head of the Brainerd Commons
Susan Burch
Associate Professor of American Studies; Director, CCSRE; Head of Life Stories project
