I didn't have a camera with me (to be honest I don't own a camera) so I won't be able to replicate the photojournalism of Riis. Instead I'm offering some stolen images as companions to my observations of Providence, Rhode Island, from where I have just returned. My purpose in visiting was primarily pleasure, not business, so my comments on Brown as an Ivy League institution are limited. But I did party with some grad students and poke my way through some of its buildings. Of course the point is ultimately that there is no “ivy half”--
--if it divided that evenly these instituations wouldn't seem so impressive. But sometimes in my profession it does feel like you are either one or the other--from an Ivy or not from an Ivy, and some of the differences within that large “not” category disappear. But this is a very seldom sometimes, and admittedly only really came up once while I was interacting with academics on my visit.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Providence.
1. This Town is My Yo-Yo: This is what was tagged at the bottom of this looming statue of Roger Williams, founder of Providence. I was charmed by this irreverence, but there was a stirring of the school-child's shock. Coming originally from a large city in the southwest, impressed by the aura of my mother's “old” house (built around 1920) and surrounded by few historical relics, my historical vision of my hometown is all “wild-west” centered--but in fact we focused on Hollywood's use of our town for western films, thus my “history” was always located in the twentieth century. I couldn't tell you who founded what, and my sense of history wasn't precisely American--the only statues I can remember from growing up were of Frida Khalo and Pancho Villa. When we drove past Jamestown on our way from Providence to Newport for a quick shopping trip, I remarked childishly and half-seriously “this is where history comes from.” So the graffiti on the Roger Williams statue was somewhat unsettling to me because it showed a sense of ownership of, or superiority to, a history that I have an immature and distant relationship to.
Exploring the Brown University bookstore, I found my self similarly and uncomfortably impressed by the faculty and alumni shelf. But luckily the mixed bag that “faculty and alumni” as a category created helped soften my sense of this Ivy's consolidated scholarly power. On the shelf with Robert Scholes was the novelization of the updated Battlestar Galactica series. [I should say that I love that show, and I don't exactly mean to draw a thick line between scholarship and popular fiction, but it still helped ease my feelings as an outsider]
3. East Coast Style: I wasn't shocked to see a lot of fashion boots, expensive looking coats and scarfs. I was a little taken aback by how good looking and well dressed in general the graduate students I met were. Is there a correlation between good looks and confidence that gave one of the gorgeous, tall, sleek haired girls I met an extra edge in the phd program competition? What about the boys I met who looked like they stepped off the pages of a Brooks Brothers catalog? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of lookers in my program, and I only met a sampling of Brown's. But after being repeatedly compared to and in fact misrecognized as a “RISD kid” during my visit I did revisit anxieties around “looking the part.”
4. My Picks: Spring break is over, it's a cold, grey Monday morning and I have to get back to work. All the above anxious reflections aside, I had a total blast in Providence, spending time with great people and going to some great shops, bars and restaurants. Some highlights:
Narragansett is the best cheap beer ever, and --bonus-- seems to be available in every Providence bar in tallboys. Also be sure to go to
AS220 for their strawberry infused vodka (and excellent burritos). Though AS220 was certainly one of the coolest places I hung out in Providence, my favorite bar still has to be the
GCB for the simple reason that a grad student “only” bar inside the basement of a dorm was too novel to not be incredibly charming.
Symposium Books has the most amazing and unbelievably cheap selection of academic books I've ever encountered. The
Tazza Café may not be the best place to study, but was rad in any case.
Of course my favorite spot in Providence, ultimately, was the futon in my friend Sarah's living room, despite the scary noises her heater made at night. None of Providence's charms compare to watching old episodes of Lost and knocking back tallboys of 'gansett with that amazing lady.
