![\"glen.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/05\/glen.jpg?resize=110%2C149&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I’m very sad to hear that a friend and colleague, geographer and Africanist Glen Elder, has passed away following a heart attack. Glen was a warmhearted, passionate scholar, former chair of Geography and current Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vermont. He had just given a captivating performance as master of ceremonies of the Arts and Sciences graduation ceremony this past Sunday.<\/p>\n
My deepest condolences to all affected, especially Glen’s partner Mick. Our memories of Glen will continue to be inspired by his warmth, insight, passion, expansive worldview, and dedicated teaching and leadership.<\/p>\n
Here’s Glen’s web site<\/a> and UVM Provost John Hughes’<\/a> words about Glen’s death. Also, my friend Reese Hersey has kindly shared the following reflection about Glen, originally given at Glen’s UVM Dean’s Lecture on November 4, 2005:<\/p>\n Elder sweep into a classroom without a note in sight<\/p>\n and then effortlessly and engagingly spin out often<\/p>\n spellbinding lectures was the first eye-opener. This<\/p>\n immersion in the tension between being prepared and<\/p>\n being overly reliant upon notes and props and a<\/p>\n scripted monologue became, for me, the first and best<\/p>\n model of what teaching should be: Know your stuff,<\/p>\n have all your props lined up, and then go at it.<\/p>\n That “go” contains the grace which can follow, when a<\/p>\n teacher trusts their own knowledge and instincts<\/p>\n enough to allow classes to be open-ended, frequently<\/p>\n student-interest shaped and unpredictably and<\/p>\n positively alive.<\/p>\n My singular favorite moment as Glen Elder’s teaching<\/p>\n assistant came in the middle of a “Where do your<\/p>\n clothes come from?” in-class exercise in Intro to<\/p>\n World Geography. We, and 108 or so students, were in<\/p>\n the deck-of-the-Enterprise-like Old Mill lecturehall.<\/p>\n To tangibly demonstrate Third World-exploitative,<\/p>\n “nimble fingers” economic geographies, Glen had asked<\/p>\n students to inspect each other’s clothing tags and<\/p>\n then call out where the garments were made. The<\/p>\n predictable suspects were coming in: Mexico,<\/p>\n Guatemala, Indonesia, el Salvador, Jakarta. (This<\/p>\n was before almost every one of these very same<\/p>\n garments would say China China China.) I was at the<\/p>\n board transcribing these place names as fast as I<\/p>\n could (in my wool vest from Johnson, Vermont).<\/p>\n Suddenly, someone said: “Milan.” Glen snapped to<\/p>\n full alert: “Milan? Who’s wearing something from<\/p>\n Milan?” A young woman sheepishly raised her hand.<\/p>\n “It’s my pants,” she said. “Well then: on the<\/p>\n catwalk, sister!” snapped Professor Elder. All heads<\/p>\n turned, imaginary spotlights flooded toward the woman<\/p>\n and Frankie Goes to Hollywood pumped onto our psychic<\/p>\n soundtracks. In this moment – suffused as it was<\/p>\n with humor, erudition, pop culture, self-revelation,<\/p>\n and the little bit of camp relished by the wisest of<\/p>\n men – the art of teaching opened wide before me.<\/p>\n It is probably also worth noting that, during my<\/p>\n short stint in grad school, and while managing all of<\/p>\n this classroom adeptness, Glen was simultaneously<\/p>\n shepherding four of our Master’s theses from vapors<\/p>\n to bound artifacts. One was a largely quantitative<\/p>\n look at recycling in the United States, particularly<\/p>\n within the recycling-savvy Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n Another was an investigation into a defunct, 19th<\/p>\n century, immigrant-founded, Midwestern Utopian<\/p>\n religious community (with intriguingly anomalous<\/p>\n gender-bending moments). Another was on image versus<\/p>\n substance in Public Housing projects around Hartford,<\/p>\n Connecticut. And mine was a sort of philosophical<\/p>\n tea party between Gary Snyder’s Bioregionalist ideas<\/p>\n and Yi-Fu Tuan’s lovely Humanistic Geography. Every<\/p>\n one of us finished and successfully defended our work<\/p>\n – no small feat for a passel of twenty- and<\/p>\n thirty-something grad students. As dizzying an array<\/p>\n of dissimilar balls to keep in the air as this was,<\/p>\n Glen was also simultaneously conducting his own<\/p>\n classes; reediting his dissertation; publishing<\/p>\n articles; devoting a great many hours to<\/p>\n VermontCARES; and – oh – cooking up a little study<\/p>\n subgroup (on “Space and Sexuality” if I’m remembering<\/p>\n its title correctly) within the venerable Association<\/p>\n of American Geographers. None of these things<\/p>\n impinged upon our individual senses of having Glen’s<\/p>\n full attention (and organizational elan) around our<\/p>\n work. His strategizing, prompting, encouragement,<\/p>\n promised post-Defense “Hamfests” in Derby Line and<\/p>\n gentle cut-the-whining; do-your-work honesty got all<\/p>\n four of us through, I believe.<\/p>\n I know I was not alone in appreciating Glen’s poise,<\/p>\n articulateness and embodiment of the unflappably<\/p>\n engaged scholar-citizen and HUMAN BEING. With Glen,<\/p>\n one firstly, unavoidably notices his great poise<\/p>\n (academic, organizational, and sartorial) but then,<\/p>\n also, the deeper, subtler underpinning of compassion<\/p>\n that all of that poise serves. And I know that we<\/p>\n are still out here now – teachers, urban planners,<\/p>\n geography professors, city councilors, Study Abroad<\/p>\n administrators, stay-at-home moms, Ph.D. candidates –<\/p>\n directly adapting some of Glen’s moves and motives to<\/p>\n our own works, still trying to make our learning and<\/p>\n lives get on the catwalk.<\/p>\n – Reese Hersey<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m very sad to hear that a friend and colleague, geographer and Africanist Glen Elder, has passed away following a heart attack. Glen was a warmhearted, passionate scholar, former chair of Geography and current Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vermont. He had just given a captivating performance as master of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[4451],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mortality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-hl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6946,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/10\/14\/realism-peirce\/","url_meta":{"origin":1075,"position":0},"title":"Realism & Peirce","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Levi is out swinging (in the most entertaining way possible; I love it when he gets on a roll, and I do agree with him on much of it). Of course, there's not much new in what he says (that hasn't been said by Left-realists for the last few decades,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"File:ProperfrontPM.JPG","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/d\/dd\/ProperfrontPM.JPG","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11148,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2020\/12\/14\/what-are-the-humanities-two-cultures-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":1075,"position":1},"title":"What are the humanities? (Two cultures, redux)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"As a humanistic scholar within an interdisciplinary school, I'm often put in a position to distinguish how the humanities differ from the social and natural sciences. There is a long tradition of distinguishing between these \"two cultures,\" with the most frequent point of focus, for humanists, being that they concern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/10\/liu-tema-genus-posthumanities-hub.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/10\/liu-tema-genus-posthumanities-hub.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/10\/liu-tema-genus-posthumanities-hub.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/10\/liu-tema-genus-posthumanities-hub.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2020\/10\/liu-tema-genus-posthumanities-hub.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9678,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/05\/25\/welcome-to-the-feverish-world-cfp\/","url_meta":{"origin":1075,"position":2},"title":"Welcome to the Feverish World (CFP)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Please circulate widely... FEVERISH WORLD 2018-2068:\u00a0ARTS & SCIENCES OF COLLECTIVE SURVIVAL\u00a0 A Symposium and Convergence in Burlington, Vermont, October 20-22, 2018 Fifty years after the widespread international protests of 1968 challenged institutional norms, and some sixty years after C. P. Snow lamented the gap between academia\u2019s \u201ctwo cultures,\u201d those of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/10\/08\/tenurepromotion-tip-counting-citations-impact-factors\/","url_meta":{"origin":1075,"position":3},"title":"Tenure\/promotion tip: Counting citations & impact factors","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"When applying for a promotion -- which generally means applying for Associate Professor status \"with tenure,\" or applying for Full Professor (the top of the heap) -- an academic must use any tactics available to make a case for the value of his or her scholarly work. In the good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7208,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2014\/01\/20\/anthropocene-readings\/","url_meta":{"origin":1075,"position":4},"title":"Anthropocene readings","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 I'm thinking of making my Spring semester graduate class, \"Environment, Science, and Society in the Anthropocene,\" into a semi-public seminar series, with a blog where we will share links to readings and videos as well as discussions. (Actual meetings will not be online, but will be open to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Clark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2014\/01\/Clark-183x275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5128,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/08\/01\/environmental-humanities-the-challenge-of-multidisciplinarity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1075,"position":5},"title":"Environmental Humanities & the Challenge of Multidisciplinarity","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"CALL FOR PAPERS: Environmental Humanities and the Challenge of Multidisciplinarity A Workshop at the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, \u201cThe Ethical Challenge of Multidisciplinarity: Reconciling \u2018The Three Narratives\u2019\u2014Art, Science, and Philosophy\u201d University of Cyprus, Nicosia July 2 \u2013 6, 2012 THEME OF\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs a graduate student teaching fellow, watching Glen<\/p>\n