Last weekend I went for a couple of days to Philadelphia, to visit Alison Cook-Sather (with whom I co-wrote a book with Peter Felten). Alison is based at Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts college in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I arrived on a Saturday morning, and Alison drove me around various famous Philly sites of interest in the centre of the city so I could get a sense of the layout of the city. It’s laid out on a grid system, just like Glasgow, so it’s pretty easy to orientate yourself.
We had lunch at the City tavern – where politicians and leaders such as Thomas Jefferson met for lunch back in the day. Later, we took a walk around the outside of the Museum of Art past the Rocky statue. The iconic scene from Rocky where he runs up the steps is actually on the steps of the Museum of Art. It was pretty busy by the museum because they were getting ready for the Philadelphia marathon which was taking place the following day. We headed back to Alison’s home for a meal and for me to meet her husband Scott and her daughter Morgan again.
The following day, Alison dropped me in central Philly and I visited the Liberty Bell. The bell is considered an international symbol of freedom. It hung in the State House in 1753 and summoned the Pennsylvania Assembly to work. In the 1830s, anti-slavery groups named it the Liberty Bell. The bell cracked in the 1840s and was repaired but cracked again! Very nearby is the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were both signed.
I looked around the Portrait Gallery before walking across town (in the sleet!) to the Barnes Foundation. It is a really impressive collection of predominantly impressionist art. This private collection has literally hundreds of Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, Henri Rousseau, El Greco, Van Gogh and other masterpieces. I had never seen most of the paintings before so it was quite breathtaking. Wonderful to have a whole Sunday afternoon to wander around. In the evening, Scott cooked for us and then we went to see ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood‘ at the local arts cinema in Bryn Mawr. The film starring Tom Hanks focuses on Mr Rogers, an iconic children’s TV presenter who was on the TV in the USA between 1968-2001.
On Monday, I spent the day at Bryn Mawr College. First meeting student partners who observe faculty members teaching, they then meet with their faculty partners weekly to discuss teaching approaches and student engagement. Alison then showed me around the beautiful Bryn Mawr campus, with buildings all named after Welsh place names.
For someone who holidayed in Wales regularly as a child it seems incredible to me that Alison works in a building named Betys-y-Coed! Bryn Mawr College and the local town were named after the farm owned by Rowland Ellis, who led a group of Quakers, who were suffering persecution in Wales, to settle in Pennsylvania. Alison and I had a chance to discuss a range of work ideas and projects before I then met with Associate Provost and Professor of Chemistry, Bill Malachowski, in the afternoon to discuss the Bryn Mawr curriculum. I then joined a group of new faculty for one of their weekly meetings with Alison, discussing a range of teaching developments. Finally I squeezed in dinner with Maya, a student partner who is working with Alison to provide feedback on the whole student partnership scheme. It was a packed day, and I was pretty exhausted by the time I headed to the airport for a late flight back to Raleigh Durham and a drive back to Elon. It was only 2 and a half days, but it felt like I packed a lot into the visit.
