Welcome, Professor

I had a chance to catch up with professor Simon Grote, a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows and a lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and history finishing up his first year at Princeton. This fall I had the pleasure of taking the humanities studies sequence with professor Grote, who quickly became a beloved figure among the students, garnering the informal but highly coveted “Most Adorable HUM Professor” Award. We had a good chat about his first year at Princeton, the delectable food that comes with his job and the limits of his Prox.

Q: What are some of the best things about being at Princeton?

A: I thought about that, obviously, and I think that I have found Princeton to be a very collegial and, not just collegial, but warm place. I feel as if I’ve been treated almost universally with courtesy, with respect, with general warmth, hospitality and, in some cases, even friendship by my colleagues and other people. I’ve made several friends here, and I think that making those friends is what I’m most grateful for.

Q: What have been some of the worst things?

A: One of the nicest things about this place is also one of the most difficult to accept, although it doesn’t really sound on the surface as if it’s bad. I find this to be an extremely comfortable place. The incoming stream of catered meals never abates; I have this beautiful office with a magnificent view of Nassau Hall and Nassau Street; I feel as if my needs and desires related to my work are easily taken care of, that my colleagues are very happy to spend all kinds of time getting things done for me; there is money available to pay for things I need for my work; and I don’t feel as if I’m really being called upon to make any sacrifices, aesthetic, financial or otherwise, to do my job.

It has an upside but also a downside. Obviously after a certain point the sacrifices are depressing, debilitating and horrible, but there’s a sense that you have a mission, that you have to do something to help. I feel that that kind of pleasure is not something I’ve gotten as much of here because things are so comfortable.

Q: What have been some of the biggest differences between being a professor and a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley?

A: It’s been a difficult transition in a way. I’ve taught a good bit before, but nonetheless I’ve felt I’ve had to feel my way into a slightly different role. Being called “professor,” for instance. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but that’s an indicator to me that things are different. I’ve felt a disjunction between how students perceive me and how I perceive myself. In a way students respect me more than I respect myself. Getting used to that and accepting the fact that maybe I’m worthy of that respect has been a change. The same thing could be said of my relationship with faculty members. They’ve treated me in many respects as a colleague. The HUM course is a perfect example: We’re all equal, we all give our lectures and we all run our precepts. Being treated with that kind of literal collegiality is something I was ready for in an intellectual sense, but it took time for me to adjust and accept that was a reality.

Q: Do you miss anything about California?

A: One of the things I’ve rejoiced in having again here are beefsteak tomatoes. When I got here in the summer that brought back a lot of childhood memories. Tomato salad: I don’t think I ate even a single one back in California. I’d say heirloom tomatoes don’t hold up.

Q: I’ll take your word for it. Tomatoes freak me out.

A: They freak you out? Is it the seeds in them, the slimy part? You never outgrew that, the slimy part? I did. I remember having Mexican food and thinking, “Until now, everything I’ve had has tasted like it has come out of a nursing home.” You know what I mean?

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Q: What are you looking forward to in the coming year?

A: I’m looking forward to teaching this course in the history department which I think will be very challenging and very rewarding ... It’s called HIS 352: From Luther to Napoleon: Early Modern Germany, 1495-1806.

My background is in intellectual history; that’s what I study and do research on: the history of ideas. This course won’t be primarily an intellectual history course, so to give it I have to draw on my knowledge of things that are the bread and butter of historians that don’t focus on intellectual history. That’s one of the things that makes it challenging: to listen to myself and find a way into this topic I know something about, but that I know about through a particular perspective. The thing I think will make it rewarding is that it’ll be an opportunity for me to expand my own horizons and perspective on the material I’ve looked at over a fair amount of time.

Q: Did you have any “Welcome to Princeton” moments?

A: I wish I could think of a good story ... something somebody said to me or something. No, I don’t think there is! I mean maybe when our first catered dinner was served. Cornmeal-stuffed roasted loin of pork. I can’t think of a single moment. I wish I could think of something that happened with a dog or something, or ice cream ... maybe ice cream falling on a dog, a dog slipping on ice cream, a J. Crew sweater with ice cream on it ... but I can’t.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Trap Yates.