At Grinnell Day 2

I am absolutely exhausted, exhilarated, and overwhelmed with my second day of interviews. I talked with more faculty members from the department from 8:45am to 8:00pm. It was a seriously full day of great advice, solid exchanges, and some no-nonsense talk that I really appreciated. My lecture demonstration went well in the morning and my job talk seemed pretty solid in the afternoon. And above all, I got to meet with some of the Sociology majors and they gave me a really good insight about student culture and what it means to be at Grinnell. Teaching is probably the most valued practice and principle that constitutes the identity of this college and students are highly invested in their educational experience, one that I haven't seen this intense in any college or university anywhere in my career.

My meetings with the faculty really gave me a solid idea of what it means to be a colleague. And the nicest thing the chair of the department said to me was that my value to the department is my very personhood.

And I saw Manning Marable today at dinner who gave a public lecture at Grinnell.

"Wow" is what I kept saying all day.