I've been thinking a bunch about all you've mentioned here, considering my life experience has been the polar opposite (born and raised in Massachusetts and everyone in my family is from New York). In college, a lot of my peers (myself included) sought out the professors who were hardasses, fearing we wouldn't receive "genuine" critiques of our work when with a "nice" professor. People who were nice were always deemed as "easy" in terms of getting a grade. Some of my favorite professors were the more neurotic ones, but then again that's art school in a nutshell (did I ever tell you the story of my painting professor who told us about the bread knife he stole from a restaurant so he could paint with it? and then proceeded to encourage us to do similar things for painting implements? yeah....).
But even outside of academia, being nice in public in New England is really weird. If you say hi to someone on the streets you don't know, you get looks. If you try to chat someone up in line at a store, there's a high chance that someone's going to ignore you. This can vary depending on how deep into the countrysides you are, like western MA or anything outside of Rich Ass White Town, Maine, where people tend to be more personable. But oh my god, not nearly as much as it is in the South.
And I mention all this, because I remember the multiple times I've been to Alabama and Georgia and how deeply unsettling it was for me due to strangers being nice to me. It really is a different type of culture and it didn't occur to me that things like work and academia would also be that much different. I also just eat this kind of shit up, so thanks for sharing these experiences.
That said, I'm also sorry these experiences haven't been amazing. I hope your new place is more accepting of your teaching style. Or that you at least not get shitty students/coworkers/bosses/people.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-05-06 01:17 pm (UTC)But even outside of academia, being nice in public in New England is really weird. If you say hi to someone on the streets you don't know, you get looks. If you try to chat someone up in line at a store, there's a high chance that someone's going to ignore you. This can vary depending on how deep into the countrysides you are, like western MA or anything outside of Rich Ass White Town, Maine, where people tend to be more personable. But oh my god, not nearly as much as it is in the South.
And I mention all this, because I remember the multiple times I've been to Alabama and Georgia and how deeply unsettling it was for me due to strangers being nice to me. It really is a different type of culture and it didn't occur to me that things like work and academia would also be that much different. I also just eat this kind of shit up, so thanks for sharing these experiences.
That said, I'm also sorry these experiences haven't been amazing. I hope your new place is more accepting of your teaching style. Or that you at least not get shitty students/coworkers/bosses/people.