Student and Faculty Experiences at UCLA
Home	Wijnand Mijnhardt My first encounter with UCLA was in 1985 when I spent a summer there on a Clark Library fellowship. I fell in love with the Young Research Library and its extensive holdings immediately; getting used to Los Angeles took somewhat longer but after I while I realized that this strange city in fact is one of the most exciting and alluring places to be. When in 1999 my long term friend and collaborator professor Margaret Jacob moved there, I avidly caught the opportunity to create a bond between my own university and UCLA, a bond we both cherish. The program encompasses the faculty of Humanities and of the Social Sciences but the history departments of both universities up to now form its core. For my Dutch colleagues and myself who have had the opportunity to teach at UCLA, the program has proved to be central to our professional growth and renewal, and it has infused fresh perspectives in both our scholarship and teaching. The graduate students who have been part of the exchange have similar experiences. I therefore sincerely hope that the program will be just as rewarding to all of its future participants Bob de Graaf Some experiences during my stay at UCLA – Bob de Graaff Of course it is a nice proposition to go to Los Angeles in the fall, when the clouds gather above the Dutch lowlands, gales gain strength and rain drops almost continuously in the Netherlands. However, the Utrecht-UCLA exchange is not primarily organized for climatic reasons because otherwise it would be hard to bring about the reverse process of UCLA faculty members visiting the Netherlands, even though the century-old architecture of Utrecht would compensate for a large extent the climatic drawbacks. The prime reason for the exchange is experiencing the differences in the setting of academic learning and teaching. For me as a visiting professor this experience made an indelible impression. The students at UCLA in both my 99 class on the history of intelligence gathering and espionage in the twentieth century and my 197/201 class on Yugoslavia and the West were very eager to learn. I enjoyed the team-spirit and the feeling of collective responsibility many students showed regarding the success of the course. They did not merely consume what was offered to them, but participated actively. Academic learning is based on exchange of views and I had to put very little effort in organizing debates; they almost organized themselves. Whereas this was understandable in the 99 class considering the topic, which draws a lot of attention in the post 9/11 era, I was also impressed by the profundity of the arguments that were exchanged in the 197/201 class. At the same time the latter caused some problems, as it was a seminar group composed of both undergraduate and graduate students. The graduate students had more insight into the history of Yugoslavia than most students I have in the Netherlands whereas for most undergraduates Yugoslavia was much farther away than for Dutch students. In the end most of the undergraduates managed to catch up with the graduates, but I realize that this required a tremendous effort on their part. Many students did not hesitate to give their opinions on the course and its requirements, whether by visiting during office hours or through email. Such real-time feedback is stimulating and offers the possibility of making timely adaptations. Both the papers written by the students as seminars outside my own courses convinced me once again that whereas Dutch scholars and students tend to focus on contents, their American counterparts show more interest into methodology. I think that from an academic viewpoint exchange in this field is among the most fruitful, because on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean there is a tendency to put too much emphasis on either one or the other, in my opinion. Although a visiting scholar easily runs the risk of remaining a stranger, at UCLA this risk is largely reduced by more parties and other less formalized meetings, and frequent informal contacts. It goes without saying that these informal contacts tend to be strongest among those who have been participating in the exchange-program, but when you ask somebody to have a coffee with you nobody refuses. Although many of my American colleagues complained about cuts in the library budget, to me having such a full-blown library next-door was one of the most pleasant experiences during my stay. For many historical topics the trip to the library, even more than going through the electronic catalogue, was always rewarding. However, once I entered into some more popular themes and current events, such as terrorism, the all too generous checking-out policy of the library (for one year and up to 200 books), often led to disappointment for a scholar who had to give up this great facility at the end of the quarter, when he was about to return to the Netherlands. Judith Thissen and Andre van der Velden Sunny Southern California? When we arrived in September 2004 in Los Angeles, there was a slight drizzle. When we left four months later, it was pouring. For the historical record: we survived an unprecedented amount of rain – the wettest fall since 1878, when record keeping began. Nevertheless, we had an absolutely marvellous time, with lots of sun, a wonderful teaching experience and a rich social life. Both of us taught undergraduate seminars (191 for insiders), respectively about movie-going in America and public entertainment in Europe around 1900. Our students were highly interested in the subject and eager to learn more about doing historical research. This was quite a change from our regular audience, undergraduates in Film and Television Studies with a preference for theory. Another welcome change from working in the Netherlands was the ethnic diversity at UCLA – a sharp contrast with Utrecht University, which is a very white university. We learned a lot about contemporary America from class discussions and the personal stories of our students, some of them recent immigrants who are the first in their families to attend college and thank their parents everyday for getting this chance. As Eric Avila points out in comparing his teaching experience at Utrecht University with that at UCLA, a college education is still a privilege in the US. This certainly helps to explain why most American students work so much harder than their Dutch counterparts and without complaining. What took us by surprise, however, was that despite all this hard work, they were not much smarter than Dutch undergraduates. In particular, we were disappointed by their academic reading and writing skills. American students lack indeed the benefits of a well-functioning public high school system, as Claudia Rapp points out. And we might add, they also lack the benefits of a more structured college curriculum. Rather than deploring the decline of the classical Liberal Arts education, Americans might look for inspiration in Europe, and we wished that the Dutch would value the benefits of their national education system a bit more. But we can learn a lot from American universities too. What made our time at UCLA unforgettable was the intellectual exchange with colleagues and graduate students – at the weekly colloquia and lecture series, during lunch or simply in the corridors of Bunche Hall. The hospitality we experienced was overwhelming. In addition to the regular events, we were invited to dinner parties, hiking expeditions and city safaris. It gave us the opportunity to make new friends, broaden our ideas and to engage in some spirited debates about education, American popular culture and Dutch politics. It also gave us the opportunity to discover the rich diversity of Los Angeles, from the Huntington to Hollywood-style shopping malls, from the wild life in the Will Roger’s backyard to Islamic Chinese food in San Gabriel Valley. Utrecht does not offer the same richness, but if you come, let us know – we’ll gladly introduce you to traditional Dutch cuisine and the charms of living in a Dutch provincial town. Ido de Haan - visitor 2006-2007 Thanks to the hospitality of the UCLA Department of History, and especially of Margaret Jacob, and with the support of a research grant of the Dutch Foundation of Scientific Research NWO, I was invited to stay as a visiting professor at UCLA for a whole year, from September 2006 to June 2007, and to be accompanied by my wife and children. We were received with great warmth by the staff of the department – many thanks especially to Nancy Dennis who took great care to make sure we had a pleasant stay. David Myers, the director of the magnificent Center for Jewish Studies, introduced us enthusiastically into the UCLA and in the LA community, as did also Lisa Napoli in her mansion on the hill. In a scholarly sense, my stay at UCLA was a wonderful experience. I taught three courses. In the Fall, I gave a course for undergraduate students on Dutch Jewish history, and a graduate seminar on the Restoration in Europe. From the perspective of Southern California, Europe seems to be a distant, picturesque, interesting, but in the end rather irrelevant part of the globe – good for art, food and exclusive shopping, but also very much a thing of the past. The direction of attention is across the Pacific, to Asia, China, where the really important things are happening. Given the subordinate position of Europe, the Netherlands are even less important, and the history of Dutch Jews is then utterly marginal. Yet to my great surprise, I had a substantial group of about fifteen students, only a minority of which was Jewish, who were deeply interested and committed students, who wanted to learn about this tiny Jewish community at the other side of the world. Even though the basic knowledge of European history of most students was limited, they quickly got the gist of what Dutch Jewish history was about. Completely different, yet as impressive, were my experiences with the graduate students, who took my course in the history of the Restoration in early 19th-century Europe. I was very impressed by the knowledge, skills, and high involvement of the students. The fact that each of them had already worked on some of the issues that were discussed, enabled us to reach a very high level of academic reflection, which was also for me an opportunity to enrich my understanding. In the Spring quarter, I taught an undergraduate course in Dutch political history from the Patriot revolt of the end of the eighteenth century, to the Fortuyn revolt at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Again, I was surprised by the substantial number of students, over thirty, who took this course, and by the high level of commitment and interest. I had the opportunity to discuss Dutch politics as well in a meeting co-organized by Richard Anderson of the Political Science Department and the Dutch Studies programme, on the occasion of the Dutch parliamentary elections of November 22, 2006, which led to a lively discussion on the peculiarities of Dutch society, with the participation of the Dutch Consul General in Los Angeles, Madelien de Planque. Next to the teaching load, I was also able to make substantial progress in my own research on political reconstruction in France and the Netherlands around 1600, 1815 and 1945. It is mind-boggling experience to work in the Young Research Library, only footsteps away from the office Margaret Jacob so kindly made available to me. The first time I got actually lost in the stacks of books, on every conceivable subject in the humanities. It left me breathless to see how many books were available, not just on the Netherlands and France in general, but on every French departement and many of the major cities, in every period of history – and these were only the books available in the open stacks. Yet is was hard to concentrate on these remarkable amount of research material, since there were at least three interesting lectures every day of the week. I thoroughly enjoyed the impressive programme of lectures organized by the Center for Jewish History, for which I also gave a talk to the graduate Jewish studies seminar. I equally enjoyed the interdisciplinary lectures organized by the Center for European and Eurasian History, while a whole new world opened up by the China-India programme of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History. Yet our stay in Los Angeles was much more than just a scholarly experience. Our children Eva and Mischa were fully immersed in American language and culture, as pupils of the Warner Elementary School, on the east side of the UCLA campus. The contact with American kids and their parents, the many opportunities the school offered, from piano lessons to Astro Camp, and the wonderful care of the teachers, Mrs. Chan and Mrs Jarvis, and ‘Coach’ Keith, made their stay into an unforgettable experience. Eva and Mischa not only became fully bi-lingual, but also widened their perspective on the world enormously. They became citizens of the world, who are able to live in many different place – and study at UCLA, as Eva already announced. Mireille and I were also struck by the ease with which we found a large group of people who soon became friends. Remarkably, a lot of them came from the UCLA south campus, among whom Bjorn Stevens and Andrea Brose, from whom we were happy to rent their beautiful Neutra appartment, when they left for a sabatical in Berlin. But we also made wonderful sailing trips with Russel Jacoby, visited Ghislain Lydon at her wonderful Marina del Rey appartment, thoroughly enjoyed the Thanksgiving dinner at the house of Peg and Lynn, and experienced a sense of coming home at the celebrations of shabbat and the high holidays at David’s and Nomi’s place. Together with the impressive cityscape of Los Angeles, without any doubt one of the most exiting cities in the world, and the breath-taking beauty of the American South-West we toured at the end of our stay, these and the many other people we met, made our year in Los Angeles an unforgettable experience. Inger Leemans Before the Beginning It is no understatement to state that – as an academic – I grew up with Dutch Studies and UCLA-Utrecht exchange program and with its founders Margaret Jacob and Wijnand Mijnhardt. Only three days after my start as a graduate student (in 1997) I took my first plane to the USA, for a three-month study period with Peg Jacob, who was then still working at the History of Science Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Already at that early date we discussed the possible establishment of an exchange program for (graduate) students and professors. I myself discovered a new world. I found the American academic community impressive, very lively and focused on intellectual exchange. As a Dutch graduate student I had been instilled with academic ideals such as thorough study in archives, in American academia I found the daring pleasures of regular colloquia, meetings, conferences and all sorts of academic debate. I experienced that it was necessary to root my own research in international academic disputes and I was stunned by the way American graduate students were raised to this ability. I was amazed by the graduate teaching program in general: here were American students who - under the stimulating guidance of Peg Jacob - plowed through Jonathan Israel’s The Dutch Republic: all 1280 pages of it! Although the Pennsylvanian academic experience was great, Philly life had it’s downsides: a lot of people seemed afraid of the city. There was constant talk about where not to go, which made me feel restricted and made a city of millions feel like a small village. UCLA-graduation What a difference with Los Angeles! When I flew to LA at the end of my graduate years, I immediately fell in love with this city and with its university. In sunny LA, fear probably evaporates and one drives freely (and frequently!) to different parts of this immense city to visit other graduate students but also staff and non-academics who kindly invite you to their houses, to join them for dinners and lunches or cultural events. In this same easy manner I found my lodgings for this period: one email by Peg Jacob was enough to arrange a great apartment not far from campus of a graduate student who was away for the semester. She even lent me her car: a bare necessity, I soon found out... It was January 2002 and the Utrecht-UCLA Exchange Program had just been established. My dissertation on radical ideas in Early-modern Dutch pornographic novels was nearly finished. A large part of the three months at UCLA I spent in the rich archives of the Charles E. Young Library especially with the impressive collection of Spinozist works and the surprising amount of early modern Dutch language texts. I discussed parts of my dissertation with professors whom I all found to be very open and helpful. I attended the Utrecht-UCLA lecture. I developed new research plans for after my graduation. I worked on an article, but in the end got stuck with proof reading and indexing my dissertation. I got acquainted with various graduate students, some of whom I have been in contact with through all these years. Some of the Dutch Studies students I met later in the Netherlands, where they were on their research trips. With respect and enjoyment I have seen them find their way in the Dutch academic circles, libraries and archives, and create American pathways into Dutch daily life. I tried to help them find their way through research databases and library loan systems, they cooked me delicious gumbo’s. The Clark connection And: I discovered the William Andrews Clark Library and the Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, where I participated in the core program on History, Theory, and the Subject of Right (1640–1848) and got a chance to meet the Popkins at their colloquium on Scepticism as a Force in Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Thought. These Clark meetings would develop into the second backbone of my international activities: besides attending a fair amount of colloquia through these years, I was invited by the Center for lectures in October 2003 (Colloquium on the Radical Enlightenment), May 2004 (Colloquium on Pietro Aretino as a libertine) and April 2007 (Colloquium on Bernard Picart). These lectures helped me to trust my English language skills and to gain confidence that I could participate in the international academic debates through my research. They brought me in contact with a large variety of scholars, contacts which developed into different new projects and working relations. Professor in Dutch Studies So after all these UCLA experiences I wholeheartedly embraced the offer to teach a semester in the Dutch Studies program in the Spring 2006. Although I had just been installed as an assistant professor at Nijmegen University, I could arrange a ‘sabbatical’ and fly back to LA to teach a course for 40 undergraduates on Early Modern Dutch History and a small graduate course on the Radical Enlightenment. Both courses were a joy to teach. It took some time to adapt to the undergrad level of teaching: most of the American students seem less skilled in analysis and verbal expression than Dutch students at that level and of course they knew hardly anything about the country (one student even confided in me later that ‘A History of the Low Countries’ would be a course about Africa and other third world countries). But most of the student appeared highly committed and the course ended in a delightful series of presentations and discussions by the students on various topics of Dutch History and Culture. The students started to follow current political events in the Netherlands and discussed politics in class. Some of them attended the annual Utrecht-UCLA lecture. At the end of the course I was very glad to announce that the following year they could pursue their Dutch Studies through new courses by Professor Ido de Haan, who was to stay at UCLA for a whole year. The graduate course was a completely different experience: with a small group of four students we plowed through an impressive amount of texts from and on the Radical Enlightenment and I enjoyed the high level of intellectual debate the graduate students could master and their insight in historiographical developments. The growth American students can make through the system in only a couple of years is staggering. The dedication with which they do research is impressive. So I really enjoyed debating with them (teaching wouldn’t be the right word), and helping them a bit further on their dissertation research paths. Meanwhile I tried to help improving the infrastructure of Dutch Studies, by making a list of the main English-language books and articles on Dutch early-modern History, and by making an survey of the early modern Dutch collections at the UCLA libraries, not only in order to assist research in this field, but also in the hope that the Young Library will keep on strengthening its Dutch collection in the future. In memory of this LA semester, which were the first months of pregnancy for me, we named our daughter Charlie Aicha Sepulveda Leemans. The future In the course of the years I have seen Dutch Studies grow from an idea to an actual program, a very lively program with a level of exchange that is unique and of the utmost importance. Dutch Studies invites a whole new group of young researchers to study Dutch history and culture and gives them the opportunity to conduct parts of this research abroad, in Dutch libraries and archives and work within a whole new academic environment. The exchange program also stimulates Dutch students and scholars at various stages in their careers to participate in international academic circles, to test out and improve their English language (teaching) skills and to expand and share their specialist knowledge. For my personal development this has been a crucial experience, which I hope will be continued in the future. But even more than that I hope that Dutch Studies can find a structural basis within the UCLA system and an opportunity to further expand.
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