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Maya asked:
Can you do a recap of all the places you've lived?
I was born in Europe (Germany) on an Army base. My parents moved around quite a bit when I was a pre-schooler, but eventually we lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is where I started school. Then we moved to a rural area north of Grand Rapids when I was in second grade and that's where I lived until I graduated from high school. When people ask where I'm from, I usually say Michigan.
I did my undergraduate degree at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I also did an internship for a semester where I lived in Arlington, Virginia and worked on P Street in DC.
For a year after college I worked as a domestic violence victim advocate for a city in southeastern Michigan. I loved having a paycheck. I loved the people I worked with. I loved the cheap, cheap rent. I loved the mission of the organization where I worked. I did not love my job. It was so stressful and it didn't seem like I was making any true impact on the problems of intimate partner violence. I spent this year applying to grad schools and going on school visits with my limited days off.
Then I did my graduate degree at Minnesota and lived in Minneapolis for the vast majority of my 20s. My husband got his doctorate in the very bad year of 2008 and took a visiting position at Winona State University for a year, so we lived in Winona for a very bad, sad year. The town was fine, but I broke my leg early on, our apartment was depressing as hell, and my husband's department wasn't exceptionally welcoming, so I found it hard to meet people. (As an academic, Maya might be interested in knowing that this was a visiting position with the understanding that it would turn into a tenure track position, but that was not going to happen in the time we were there. This meant my husband was on the job market during this time, while ALSO teaching all brand new preps for the first time. In the end, it did turn into a tenure track line, but that didn't happen until a couple of years after we left. If it had been tenure track, my husband would have stayed there and we would still probably be there.)
So then we moved to the small college town in Wisconsin that houses the university where my husband and I work when he got a tenure track gig. It's tough living in a college town (and ours doesn't even have a grocery store!), so we bought a house in the next town over in 2017 and that's where we live now.
TL;DR - Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Kyria asked:
You just started a new job. What were you doing before?
Oh, boy, my work history is spotty. My husband and I made a deal that I would move anywhere he got a job (he's a political theorist and those jobs are few and far between), but that meant he could not complain about what job I was doing.
So when we first moved to Wisconsin, I had a lot of part-time work. I worked part-time teaching test prep and working as an adjunct as the university where he was full-time. Then, in March 2020, I got a full-time job working as a project coordinator for a big federally funded grant project. That project was a disaster from the get-to. The employees were only 25-35% and the lead actually left the university after a year. The funding ended in November 2022 and I was unemployed until October 2023.
What is your favorite type of tree?
Hm. This is an excellent, but hard question. I love the look of a weeping willow, but would never want one in my yard (invasive root system!). I love the solidness of an oak. But I will admit to you that right now my favorite tree is a hawthorn tree that's in our backyard. Yes, the thorns are intense and make yardwork a nightmare, but the birds LOVE it and it's always filled with juncos, chickadees, jays, cardinals, and finches.
Would you rather skydive or scuba dive (and why)?
I'd LOVE to scuba dive. I'd love to see the fish under the water! But I am also a super annoying person with chronic allergies and it's never been safe for me to actual do so. No to skydiving because I am a scared of heights person. I'm happy to just watch the drone footage.
If you could speak a language with no effort in learning it, what would it be?
Not to brag, but according to Duolingo, I'm a World Champion in learning Spanish, so I would definitely love to be fluent in Spanish. It just makes so much sense to know Spanish in the United States, since we have so many native and heritage speakers around.
I would also love to learn Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and German, but look, now is not the time to talk about how I wish I had all the time in the world to just take classes and talk to people.
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That's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow with more answers to the burning questions!
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What's your favorite tree?
Because Ben was not an academic when I got my PhD, I opted to stay at my university in an academic staff job instead of moving us who the heck knows where for an assistant prof job— being married in academia can be real head-scratcher. I think your bargain is a really good one.
ReplyDeleteWe had an agreement that we would go wherever his job was and let me tell you, there were not a lot of offers in 2008 in a field that has relatively few openings in a normal year. I was seriously worried we'd end up in the rural American South and I would not be able to find a job AT ALL, so it has worked out well most of the time. My husband wants me to have a job, but that job is really just so that I am a productive human being, not necessarily for the money. Although the money is nice.
DeleteWe have a number of friends who both have PhDs and it has only worked out that one of those couples has been able to have both of them stay in academia because they live in the Boston area, so they can work at separate institutions. Even that is in jeopardy, though, because one of them was recently laid off. The two-body problem is real.
I, too, live in a college town! Sometimes, when I am spouting off about "the kids", my guy has to ask me to qualify if I am talking about my daughter and her friends or the young adults who live at the college, haha! I'm amazed at all of the states you've lived in; I've spent my whole life living in one (and one region of that one)... Love the AMA!
ReplyDeleteHa! Whenever people tell me they've only ever lived in one place, I'm in awe. How does that even work?! It's just different choices, I guess!
DeleteVery interesting that you got a job in March 2020 and kept it! I would have thought that being new and then having to transition to WFH or whatever would have happened would have been difficult. We had to hire a few people during the WFH days and it was a nightmare. Of course, it was easier than we thought it would be, as were a lot of the things we had to transition to, but I really like to look people in the eye across a table and see if they sweat or not (just kidding!) while I am interviewing them.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tree...is a hard one. I love a good Dogwood, but the cherry blossoms in spring are beautiful as well... However, I would probably pick an evergreen and go with either the Ponderosa Pine or the Sequoia or the Redwood. I spent most of my life around these beauties and don't know what I would do without them!
Honestly, starting that job in March 2020 WAS a nightmare. I was only on-site for four or five days when we were all sent home. But the project was really counting on us meeting people face-to-face and doing recruitment in person, but that never happened, obviously, and we just didn't do a good job of pivoting.
DeleteFavorite tree is such an interesting question! Thanks for asking it! I feel like it really reveals a lot about people.
I also live in a university town and since before even graduating with my graduate degree (from said university) I have been employed by that same university! University towns are really their own unique bubble.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE weeping willows, but as a home owner that had costly repairs from the invasive root systems you mention - definitely not my favourite tree to have on property. I LOVE evergreens. They're just so pretty in the winter when all the other trees look lonely without their leaves.
We have a GIANT evergreen in our yard (I mean, it's significantly taller than our three-story house) and it is so gorgeous in the winter. I feel like our yard would have a much different feel without it.
DeleteThis was so interesting to read, Engie! I didn't realize you were born in Europe. Do you have a dual citizenship, how does it work if you are born on an army base?
ReplyDeleteI have also been learning Spanish on Duolingo! I think I was in the top 2% so you're ahead of me! I am excited because we are going to Mexico in January, and last time we were in Mexico (August 2022) was able to converse a little. Now I'll be able to say all sorts of things! My husband's colleague's wife is Columbian and at his retirement party she patiently talked to me in Spanish and I was amazed at how much I could follow (she spoke nice and slow for me!). It's such a useful language I think.
I think I was eligible for dual citizenship, but I would have had to act on that before I turned 24 and I did not. In retrospect, I should have taken advantage of it so that I could have EU citizenship. I feel like a US or Canadian passport AND an EU passport would be an amazing combination and I wish I could smack young NGS and have her figure it out!
DeleteI sometimes hear commercials in Spanish and I am so happy when I can figure out what's going on. I can usually understand Spanish speakers at the grocery store when I'm eavesdropping, too. I am so jealous you had a Spanish speaker who was willing to talk to you in Spanish!
NGS--no longer a mystery to us all! And I'm duly impressed with your Spanish Prowess. I took years and years of French back in the day, and wow! has it ever NOT come in handy. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite tree is a tough one. I am completely enamoured with flowering trees and so in awe of them each and every spring. When they bloom, especially magnolias, I'm entranced. They are short-lived, so I bask in their glory every single day.
But I feel a different kind of awe in the presence of any redwood. They impart a certain quiet majesty, a staid gravity that implies an aged, knowing presence. Redwoods make me feel secure and peaceful; they've been around since the dawn of time, and I can feel their stability. They're my all-time favourite tree.
Oh, wow! I'm always SO ANNOYED by flowering trees because they're beautiful for like two days and then they're just messy! I should change my mindset, I guess.
DeleteThose really big trees are certainly awe-inspiring. I always think about the history they have been through and it is amazing.
I'm laughing a little at the tree question (who asked that?) I mean, it's a good question (and you had an interesting answer) but well, you definitely had a good variety here!
ReplyDeleteSo you're a true midwestern girl (hey, my husband really nailed it) except for your short time in Virginia. Although I could never, ever live there again because of the weather, I have a fondness for that part of the country since I grew up in Illinois. My grandparents lived in Appleton WI so we spent a lot of time there as well.
Living in South Florida, my life would be SO MUCH EASIER if I spoke Spanish! I guess I have no one to blame but my lazy self for that shortcoming, since I too could be a World Champion on Duolingo if I just applied myself- well, maybe not World Champ but I could at least qualify for Nationals : )
Ha ha! I really am a Midwest girl. I find it a bit disconcerting that your husband knew that from looking at me, though. What are the Midwest clues?
DeleteI thinking speaking Spanish anywhere in the US would be helpful! We get a lot of seasonal workers here and there are A LOT of heritage speakers. Someday I will be less embarrassed to actually speak it to other people.
NGS--Absolutely LOVED reading this AMA. Such interesting questions ;)! Seriously though, SUCH interesting answers! I'm glad you can still be president of the USA someday, but yes, please let <24 NGS know to hustle on that EU citizenship too. Did you speak any German before moving back to the states?
ReplyDeleteSmart decision on jobs with your two-body "problem." At this point, any TT job is a blessing rather than a reward as there are so many qualified candidates. Would you have stayed at Winona if Dr. BB's department had been more hospitable? I once applied for a TT position where I was adjuncting and yikes was it ever a cluster... I felt so terrible when I didn't get it although the chair and my mentors there assured me I would be a shoo-in. Still gives me the sads. (I didn't realize Dr. BB was a political theorist though... Somehow I had him pegged as Philosophy/Religious Studies.)
Your Duolingo stats are gold! Goals!
I was so young when we moved back to the States that I hardly talked at all! I don't speak a word of German, unfortunately.
DeleteIf the line at Winona had been TT, we would have stayed. The job market was just so bad at that time and we were biting our nails every semester about how we were going to eat! It was a really scary time. He kept getting reassured that the visiting position would turn TT, but since they hadn't put the paperwork through by the spring semester, he had to start taking interviews. He was also a really close to getting a job offer in Duluth, but they offered it to someone else who left after a year or two. If he'd gotten that job, we certainly would have stayed. Oh, well. It all worked out in the end!
I don't really think TT jobs are blessings, though. My husband works way more than anyone I know who works for a Fortune 500 company and his compensation is peanuts. The state of Wisconsin's legislature is actively hostile to higher education and it sometimes feels like we're under constant attack! I do wonder what would have happened if he'd not gotten a job at all and was forced into a non-education sector.
I'm with you - if I had all of the time in the world I would learn all of the things. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteGreat questions & great answers!
Right? I would 100% just take classes. LOL. Being a professional student sounds amazing.
DeleteFavorite tree... A birch tree! They have whole forests just with birch trees in Russia and I always, always feel nostalgic when I see birch trees. They remind me of Russia.
ReplyDeleteMy husband's favorite is the birch, too! It's always fun to see who is likeminded with people in your life.
DeleteI love the tree question. But I don't think I can pick a favorite! I love mountain aspen -- they are so beautiful and their leaves sparkle. I love tamaracks (western larch) because they change colors in the fall even though they look like evergreens. I love magnolia trees because there was one outside my dorm when I was in college and I had never seen magnolias before and they are gorgeous in spring. There are many more but I'm going to stop now.
ReplyDeleteGo you on your Spanish! That's amazing! Have you had any opportunities to practice speaking with others?
I do not get much opportunity to speak Spanish with other people, but I was at an event at a community center yesterday and some folks were speaking Spanish and I was able to follow it. I think I need to just suck it up the next time I'm in a setting like that and see if someone will patiently listen to me!
DeleteI don't think I knew you were born in Germany - which army base? It's been great to learn more about where you lived and what you've done for work.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to practice German (would help with the dual citizenship - just saying ;)) if you ever have extra time with Duolingo :)
I was born in Landstuhl. I wish I had known there was a deadline for the dual citizenship when I was younger - I would definitely have found a way to do it!
DeleteThis was so interesting! I definitely did not know many of these things. I also love the look of weeping willows. I lived on a boulevard growing up, and in the middle of it there was a little creek/stream running the whole length of it. Just down from our house a ways, there were several huge weeping willows that shaded the stream. My sister and I spent hours and hours of our childhood playing under there, jumping across the stream, stepping on little rocks in there... good memories! So that's why I love weeping willows. We never had any in our yard, but there were quite a few in our neighborhood in general growing up.
ReplyDeleteOh, what a lovely childhood memory of playing under the willows! That makes me happy to think about.
DeleteThis was so interesting! I have not moved around AT ALL in my life. The hospital I was born is a mere 20 minutes from me and I've only moved around from city to city in this bigger urban area. I wish I had had more of an experience of new places, but that's not the way my cookie crumbled.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha. My entire goal when I was in high school was to get out of the small town where I lived. And now I live in another small midwestern town. Life is crazy. I do feel like I have lived in small towns, rural areas, and big cities, so I have experienced it all, albeit mostly in the midwest. If you don't feel the need to leave your bubble, that's great!
DeleteOh, yay! Someone who's moved around almost as much as I have! No European residences for me, though. (And dude, the dual citizenship would have been a very future oriented choice [also prescient re: 2016, I'm thinking...] Does any 24 year old make consistently good future oriented choices?)
ReplyDeleteI am really fascinated by how you and Dr. BB discussed how you were going to approach the job market. Did you talk about what the approach would be if you had continued on and gotten a PhD?
And also - geez, we could geek out over academia if we were so inclined, and maybe invite Sarah along for the ride - TT is totally different in my field because of our dire faculty shortage. It's... bad.
We never talked about what would happen if I got my PhD because it was clear by the time we were engaged that it was never going to happen. LOL. And, honestly, it made our lives so much easier because two doctorates trying to find jobs is so hard.
DeleteBecause so many schools are doing away with their liberal arts programs, finding theory jobs is a real challenge for grads in the social sciences and humanities these days. It's much different in STEM fields, that's for sure.
You are a world champion learner! That is something special--kudos to you.
ReplyDeleteI had a giggle at the favorite tree question. 😳 Aren't our blog friends the best?
I mean, who would think of the tree question?! Only a really clever person, I think!
Deletefinally got a way to comment!!! I love reading about you. Political theorist? wooo! that's impressive. can you do a guest post to him to explain how he chose that career? I'm so curious!!! and it's great that you support him. I appreciate so much my husband for following my career.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I am not sure how my husband would feel about a guest post. I'll approach him delicately about it. Maybe an AMA for him!
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