When I got my ticket to “A Conversation with the President,” I was not so naïve as to think I might actually get to have my own conversation with Barack Obama. Granted, I am—like Obama—an eternal optimist and a girl can dream, of course.

But, no, this particular dream did not come true. Instead, it was as expected: after giving a talk for the 200 students attending the event, I was barely able to find a seat in the back row, which was still closer than I could ever imagine I’d ever get to the man, the myth, the legend. The students got to spend the hour standing on the stairs, but they may have had a better view.

Regardless of the view, I am still privileged to have had this opportunity to see and hear Obama, to be in the same room as he answered the questions of the CEO of Foreningen Business Kolding. He remarked about the comfort of Danish chairs (which I am in total agreement with) as well as the highly organized society of Denmark, which he attributed to the cold temperatures.
Since the event was a partnership between business and education, it was no surprise that Obama was asked about these topics. When he started talking about education, I started taking notes.

And here’s where my home institution and other American universities should listen up: when asked about the skills he thought students of today need for the world of the tomorrow, Obama spoke about the need for critical thinking and creativity. He highlighted the importance of learning to work with people and to develop empathy and understanding. He said that his advice to his daughters (if we assume that they might listen to him) is to be kind and to be useful, to “worry less about what you want to be and more about what you want to do.”

While he did not use the word “interdisciplinarity,” this is exactly what he was talking about.

He talked about how the most successful people are those who love what they do. If you focus on what you want to be, he argued, then you have “no center, no focus, no reason except to maintain the power that you have.”

Obama reiterated an argument that is not new: the kind of work we train students for—by asking them to sit in lecture halls, follow scripts, and spit back answers on tests—will be done by robots, by artificial intelligence. I’ll add that rather than see this as a threat, we should see this as an opportunity. Human beings will be freed up for higher pursuits and I’m with Obama in imagining what such a world might bring.

I think that the Danes felt inspired and it was certainly a breath of fresh air to hear Obama’s optimism about the future—his sights have always been on the long game, so to speak. His Obama Foundation, which he describes as a “university for social change,” has a vision of training young leaders to guide, steer, and organize “communities, nations, and the world,” creating communities of people across nations, in multiple fields, with a shared mission and values.

It was nice to soak in some optimism for an hour, but when I checked my Facebook feed, and I saw what was going on at home—the travesty of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings—the long game seems too far away. We’re going to need more than optimism to get through these trying times. I will remain optimistic that the long game is still in play, but an end to a culture that excuses and encourages sexual violence (among other insidious things) needs to end before we can set our sights on the promises of the future.

Apparently, I had to go all the way to Denmark, just to be in the same room as Barack Obama. Before the event, instead of listening to one of my distinguished colleagues speak and hanging out with the VIPs, I will be giving a talk for the 200 students who have been privileged enough to score a ticket to the event—some by departmental affiliations in business or American studies and some by a good old-fashioned lottery.

I’d like to say that I have been specially selected to give a talk to SDU students before the Obama event, but the truth is that I was one of only two volunteers and I had the most flexibility in my schedule. The students, it turns out, will be waiting in the campus library for two hours since they are not considered VIPs. In fact, I opted out of my VIP ticket to talk with the students—a place I am far more comfortable being—even if I still have to dress in “business” attire.

(Of course, I am still trying to figure out exactly what business attire consists of and I am guessing neither yoga pants nor my “fuck racism” shirt are appropriate. I was also told, quite plainly, that a skirt—my go to for anything that requires me to “dress up”—is not a good idea. I bought a blazer, so that should do it… as long as sparkly Doc Martens are close enough to business attire...)

So, while this “A Conversation With the President” event will most likely focus around topics related to business (given the sponsorship of the business crowd in Denmark), my talk will focus on popular culture and racism: “Barack Obama: Our Pop Culture President … and the End of Racism?” While I am a bit (read: extremely) nervous, I am also excited to have this opportunity to connect with many students I would not otherwise have contact with.

And if I might be allowed to do some very un-Danish bragging, if I can fit it all into 25 minutes, my talk is going to be quite entertaining and thought-provoking! And of course there is no pressure on me to give a pre-talk before hearing/seeing one of the greatest orators of our time. And there is no pressure for the tech to work for all my video clips. And there is no pressure to get on a train that morning and not get lost….

So, stay tuned! I will be posting a copy of my talk on my website www.cultureandmovement.com

As I noted in a past blog about some of the initial things I have learned through observation and orientation, there are many similarities between the university system in Denmark and the university where I teach in the U.S., the University of Maine at Augusta. But there are also some interesting differences and quirks I have discovered in Denmark (so far!).

9:00 is not 9:00. 9:01 is 9:00
Fortunately I was team-teaching my first class when I found out about the fact that classes start on the quarter hour. So, if a class is scheduled at 9:00 in the morning, it actually starts at 9:15. If a class is scheduled at noon, it actually begins at 12:15. If something begins at 9:00 sharp, it is usually listed as 9:01 to help avoid confusion.

Further, they use the 24-hour clock in Denmark, which I have always understood as “military time.” I can handle telling the time for the most part, but can’t quite get over the weirdness of feeling like I must be living in a war movie.

No equivalent of “general education.”
Students specialize early on and so by the time they are working on their bachelor’s degree, it is assumed that they have already gotten all of that general knowledge from their previous studies. Thus, in my classes I have students who have all chosen to study American studies (for a variety of reasons), which is quite different than my previous teaching where students had to take, for instance, a humanities or cultural diversity elective or were “forced” to take college writing.

I can see the logic in this system, but I did take a lot of really great classes during my undergraduate education that I never would have taken if I did not have to. I learned many things that still resonate with my life and work today. Without the general education requirements for things like cultural diversity or fine arts, we might never know what we are missing out on!

My Hip-Hop America class is full of English majors.
I assumed that the elective classes (one MA-level and one BA-level) that I am teaching would be filled with American studies majors. Both are small classes, which was also a little surprising. I was surprised to find in my Hip-Hop America class that half the students there on the first day were actually English majors (a major that studies literature as well as language and more). I don’t know if they were nervous or if they were not really excited about the subject.

Only the Japanese exchange student seemed really excited, but he was nervous and apologetic about his English (which was very good!). My technology worked perfectly and I had made a kick-ass power point with music videos and engaging content, but it mostly fell flat. I’m a little worried, but will remain optimistic!

Many international students are in the American studies program.
My MA-level “Girls on Fire” class is almost entirely international students. I have students from Germany, Brazil, Slovakia, and more countries I can’t remember… and one of the few Danish students is originally from the Faroe Islands. In my BA-level Hip Hop class I have two German exchange students and a Japanese exchange student.

Gender not so equitable?
In much of my women’s studies work, Denmark (and other Scandinavian counties are often cited as having superior gender equity). With a few of my initial observations and conversations, I am not sure that it is all that more advanced than the U.S. I was told by a couple of colleagues, anecdotally, that they think that young men in Denmark today are “down on” feminism and they would probably not take a class they thought would be about women or feminism. And, this just happens to relate to part of my research project, so I hope I will be learning more about girls and women and feminism in Denmark!

Related, there are a lack of opportunities to do gender studies at my university here (and, again anecdotally, it seems this is a lack in some European countries more generally). After my first Girls on Fire class, two students approached me after class to see if I was willing to work with them on their Master’s thesis projects since they wanted to do gender studies but had not been able to find anyone to work with.

After just over two weeks in Denmark, I have learned some interesting things about Denmark, the Danes, and Danish cultural life. Of course, I am only scratching the surface and look forward to what else I have to learn. Here’s a few little stories and observations:

The Danes are a laid-back people: In Maine (and certainly elsewhere), we have a saying: “It is what it is.” This is basically a kind of acceptance of those things we cannot change. When my wonderful, kind landlord showed me around the apartment (with a long list of all of the cleaning quirks I need to try to remember!) and then walked me to the internet office, she repeated several times: “So it is.” I am not sure if this is a Danish saying or just something she says because she has run out of words in English. I guess I will find out!

Fitting in: Apparently my blond (grey-white) hair and blue (green-grey) eyes help me to fit in well here. Many people have spoken Danish to me expecting me to answer back, and some have even shown shock when I speak English back to them. (My pronunciation is so horrible that I have barely tried to speak more than a few basic words at a time.) One day I let an older woman with a plant get off the bus in front of me and she thanked me profusely for, what my colleague told me after, was my immense kindness. I just smiled.

Learning the language: They say that the language is impossible to learn. It is even more impossible to speak. But I have been practicing (on Duolingo and by pronouncing words and street names in my head) and I can recognize words and am feeling more comfortable. And then someone asks me something simple like: “Good morning, would you like a croissant,” (while holding out a bag with a croissant in it) and I understand not a single syllable!

Some surprises:
The amount of litter. I really expected the streets of Denmark to be much cleaner! There are beautiful cobblestones and bricks of many designs and varieties everywhere and the streets are well-paved and smooth. I feel like getting one of those trash wands and picking up trash everywhere I go!

The amount of racial and ethnic diversity. In my pre-reading and some of my orientation, I learned about the changing demographics of Denmark (like everywhere) and controversies around immigration and what it means to be (ethnic) Danish, and while these issues still exist, I have been surprised at the visible ethnic diversity around me.

Some totally new things:
I live on an island, a very flat island. It is not so flat when riding a bike, but it is a new place in this way. When I bought my bike, the man who sold it to me told a story about the people of this island. He said: If there was a nuclear war all around them, the people of Funen (or Fyn, in Danish) would make some coffee and sit around and wait. If, when they were done with their coffee, the war was still going on, they would make some more coffee and wait. The Danes aren’t going to be starting any wars anytime soon, he assured me.

I live in a relatively large city compared to the college towns and small cities where I have lived. Navigating has been frustrating and confusing, and I am lucky to have a friend, Kirby, who is more familiar with the area and good at navigation. I have now gotten to campus twice without getting lost. So, that is a major improvement! But when I tried to show Kirby the grocery store I found on my route, my first turn would have taken us into the city center, far away from where I was trying to go.

Further, my campus is also very confusing with long, maze-like hallways where every wall and door is white, several floors with stairs in multiple locations, buildings that are connected, doors that lock after you exit them, doors that lock at 4 pm so that you have to swipe your ID card and use a passcode (my card does not currently work since it “locked” after three failed passcode tries), classrooms that are within another classroom, etc. (Oh, and did I mention that more than 95% of all signage is only in Danish?) I was doing great finding my way to my office, my classroom, IT, etc. … until Kirby and I tried to meet up and ended up looking for each other for over a half an hour!

Some not surprises:
Bureaucracy is just as convoluted and frustrating as anywhere else. Despite doing the needed things far ahead of time (which was frustrating, confusing, and expensive), two weeks later I still cannot access my grant money through my Danish bank account (luckily the Fulbright Commission gave me cash!), but I do have my CPR card (like a social security card) which makes me a “real person.” I also have a NemID, which allows me secure online access and a residency card, which I was not expecting to receive.

No one knows what a Fulbright is. In this way, Denmark is not unlike anywhere else, though the Americans I have randomly met, are super-impressed when I tell them why I am here. And, when I return I will be pestering all the people I know in academia to apply for one!