Greetings, fellow lovers of history! Hope you’ve all had a terrific Thanksgiving, and hope that you all overstuffed yourselves. Besides, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving if we didn’t overstuff ourselves. So, I guess we should be thankful for the ability to overstuff ourselves. LOL!
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my very close nursing major
friend’s very groovy character profile, “Diana Rogut: Communication Is Key.”
Because I enjoyed writing it. If you didn’t enjoy it, then, I’ll knock some
sense into you. Just kidding LOL! Besides, she wouldn’t let me get away with it
anyway. Nothing I do gets past her. LOL! Anywho, this week, The Bruin History Blog profiles another
friend of mine – my good buddy Seth Russell Ross-Granda!
Hailing
from “various pockets of [the] greater Nashville [area] (Bell Meade, Bellevue,
Brentwood, and Green Hills),”[1]
Seth is quite the veteran Bruin. Currently a first-year law school student, or
1L, he selected Belmont University for both his undergraduate and graduate
education. I asked him why he chose Belmont over Middle Tennessee State
University, Vanderbilt University, or some other school, and he told me,
Honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to
attending college prior to the last few months of high school. A good friend of
mine asked me if I wanted to attend Belmont University and be his roommate, and
so I did a little research. After touring the beautiful campus and interviewing
with some of the school faculty and officials, I couldn’t deny that the school
had everything I could have asked for in a university.[2]
I’m
glad that Seth chose Belmont – really, I am. But I asked him: Why did you
decide to attend law school after I repeatedly protested otherwise? (I asked
him that because I personally think the world has one too many lawyers, and I
know tons of them – such as my father, my brother Zach, and a good family
friend named Larry, just to name a few. Plus, I agree with my father that
Seth’s too nice to be an attorney. LOL!) Anywho, in response to my question,
Seth said, “I’m incorrigible, Matt. You know that better than most, with the
exception of maybe my mother, and my wife.”[3]
As
you plainly see, fellow lovers of history, Seth did not heed my protest.
Ironically, he remarked,
I hadn’t really desired to put myself
through more school after finishing the undergraduate program in May of 2012.
Initially, I thought I might like to teach abroad. Some of my friends from
undergrad had gone to southeastern Asia to teach English, which I thought would
be a very rewarding venture, but before I could make a firm decision, I took
the opportunity to travel Europe and serve a church in Perth, Australia for a
few months. In part, I’d hoped that my time spent traveling and serving would
give me clarity of purpose about what I should do regarding my profession upon
my return, but even after my time away I remained unsure about what occupation
to pursue. One thing that did become clear to me during my trip abroad was that
I wanted to marry the love of my life, Kelsey. After I proposed on our
four-year anniversary in September of 2012, I gave some thought to pursuing a
legal degree. Throughout my last two years of undergraduate school, I studied
for the LSAT because a law degree would provide me with a dynamic education
that would provide me with many benefits: the ability to be an advocate for
people who need legal help, an education that would utilize some of the
critical thinking skills I garnered as a history student, and I could always
pursue a career as a teacher later in life.[4]
But
Seth also told me,
I’m not exactly sure just yet [what I
want to do with my history and law degrees]. I’d still like to teach someday,
but, in the meantime, I’d like to serve in some capacity as an advocate for the
less fortunate in our society. I also have a great sympathy for young people
caught in between family turmoil and would be happy to serve as a counselor or
advisor of some kind to them in their time of sorrow and need. Quite
alternatively, I have a deep love for music and the arts. It would be a great
joy if I could find some way to meld my education and career with something
that brings me as much pleasure as music.[5]
Whatever Seth decides
to do after law school, I wish him the best.
And
now, my exclusive interview with Mr. Seth Russell Ross-Granda!
CRAFT: Have you always been interested in history?
GRANDA: Yes. For as long as I can remember, I’ve
been intrigued by the world, and how the current state of social, cultural, and
political affairs came into being. I suppose you could say I’m curious to know
how the stories of both the people who lived in the years before us and during
our lifetimes relate to our individual conditions.
CRAFT: Why history?
What first got you interested?
GRANDA: Throughout my childhood, my father made
efforts to impart his passion for history onto me by telling me stories from
history during dinnertime. My father would recount narratives about various
historical periods. One night, it was about Alexander the Great’s Conquests in
Persia, and the next it would be about William Sherman’s March to the Sea
(obviously we skipped around a bit). In my opinion, my father’s interest in
history was probably due to a desire to better understand his own identity. In
the late 1950s, my father, a thirteen-year-old at the time, along with his
family fled Cuba after the coup d’état led by Fidel Castro.[6] I
think it was this watershed event in the history of my father’s home country –
an event that so directly affected the outcome of his own life – that fueled
his passion for learning about the times and places before our existence. For
me, too, history really came to life when I wanted to know more about myself,
my father, and the genealogy from which we hailed. One way of getting to pursue
that knowledge was to research Cuban history and, more specifically, the
history of the Cuban Diaspora following the fall of the Batista government. In
short, my father is the primary reason I became interested in history.
CRAFT: Is there a specific avenue or focus of
history you find most interesting, and why?
GRANDA: Cuban-American History in the Twenty-first
Century because of my father’s heritage.
CRAFT: What role did history play in your
pre-collegiate education?
GRANDA: It played the role of socializing me to the
world, primarily. I think my interaction with the study of history was a way to
help me analyze current world events through the scope of the question “how did
we get to this point in history?” As you are well aware, our generation was
faced with a lot of questions after the events in New York City on September
11, 2001. I was merely 11 years old at the time, and when neither my parents
nor my teachers could give me adequate answers about what exactly happened on
that day and why, I wanted to know more about the history of the tenuous
relationship between the United States and the Middle East.
CRAFT: If you can remember, what history did you
learn in your pre-collegiate days?
GRAND A: In high school, I took World History as a
freshman, and I took American History as a junior.
CRAFT: What and how many history courses have you
taken here at Belmont? Please provide the course names and numbers if you can
(e.g. HIS 4670 – The Tudor Monarchy, 1485-1603).
GRANDA: Freshman year (prior to becoming a history
major – “boo”):
(1)HIS 1990 –Episodes in American Civil Rights
History with Dr. Kuryla was the class that made me want to become a history
major; I took this as part of a linked cohort class with Dr. David Curtis, the
[Belmont University] English Department chair, who taught a phenomenal course
on African American Literature.
Sophomore year (after becoming a history major –
“yay”):
(2)HIS 2020 –The American Experience Since
Reconstruction
(3)HIS 1010– World History to 1500
Junior year:
(4)HIS 3800 Latin America – The National Period
(5)HIS 2050– The Craft of History
(6)HIS 3540 –Modern China
(7)HIS 4950 –Eastern Europe: Holocaust & WWII
Senior year (finally):
(8)HIS 4650 –Russian Revolution & Civil War
(9)HIS 4320 –Seminar in the American West
(10)HIS 3050– Writing History
(11)HIS 4020 –History Internship
(12)HIS 3300 –1920s’
America
CRAFT: What is the most important thing you left
your history classes with?
GRANDA: My gratitude for the patience and grace of
the professors in relaying to us some very complicated historical narratives
and details.
CRAFT: Is there a person you admire or model
yourself after? Dr. Jackson-Abernathy? Dr. Schafer? Dr. Mrs. Bisson? Dr. Mr. Bisson? Dr.
Burgess? None of the above?
GRANDA: Genghis Khan,
mainly… But since you mentioned some of our esteemed history professors, I
should say that each of them represents academic excellence in their own way.
Any student at Belmont could learn something about the meaning of scholarship
from taking a class taught by any one of the mentioned professors, and the
students would be better for it.
CRAFT: Who is your favorite intellectual or
historian? Why? Where do you see their historic relevance and importance?
GRANDA: Noam Chomsky.[7]
Although I disagree with his views on a variety of issues, his research has
yielded some results that interested me quite a bit. As part of the final
project in Sociological Theory, an elective class I took during my senior year
at Belmont, Dr. Ken Spring allowed us to choose one of several documentaries
through which we would then analyze various sociological theories and issues. I
chose to watch a documentary called Manufacturing
Consent, a film based on the book of the same name composed by Noam Chomsky
in the late 1980s. Manufacturing Consent presents
evidence that raises the viewer’s eyebrows regarding the role of the mainstream
media in the United States. If nothing else, it challenges us to think about
how mainstream media news sources relate to our personal opinions regarding
current events. I would encourage anyone to watch it at least once (don’t try
to do it all in one sitting though, as it lasts several hours in duration).
CRAFT: Who is your favorite American president
and/or politician, both past and recent/current, and why?
GRANDA: Past: Martin Van Buren;[8] no
president since has been neither bold nor hairy enough (with the exception of
maybe Rutherford B. Hayes)[9] to
sport sideburns of such a tremendous caliber. For more information, consult Dr.
Kuryla, a facial hair expert of American Presidents and intellectuals.
Recent: I can’t pick
just one. First, it would have to be Bill Clinton.[10]
Although I am repulsed by much of the man’s personal choices and some of his
political leanings, the man had a great sense of humor, and the nostalgic
America of our childhood flourished during his tenure. Alternatively, I have to
say Ronald Reagan[11]
because of his charm and his leadership throughout a critical period during the
Soviet-American standoff.
CRAFT: Did you join the national honor history
society, Phi Alpha Theta?
GRANDA: Yes, I did, and I can say that with great
pride because I was inducted during the same class as you, Mr. Craft.
CRAFT: Did you join the campus social club, the
Belmont History Society, during your undergraduate days at Belmont?
GRANDA: Regretfully, I must admit that I did not
join the Belmont History Society during my undergraduate career. Some of my
best friends and esteemed peers within the Department were a part of it,
however, and I was overjoyed to observe their fruitful efforts as they resolved
to build a rich tradition of academic excellence within the student body and
History Department at Belmont.
CRAFT: How did you feel about helping me present my
“Eugene V. Debs: The ‘Forgotten Red Saint’” academic research paper for the
spring 2013 Phi Alpha Theta annual regional conference?
GRANDA: Words cannot do justice to describe how
honored I was to be receive an invitation to be the orator of your tremendous
research work. It was a great pleasure of mine that I will not forget.
CRAFT: What did you expect at the PAT conference?
GRANDA: A thrilling presentation from each of our
prestigious department’s bright young scholars.
Thanks for reading, fellow lovers of
history. But it ain’t over yet. Part two of my very exclusive interview with
Mr. Seth Ross-Granda is next. So, stay tuned!
AW MML, HI
[1]
Seth Russell Ross-Granda, personal interview, November 2013.
[2]
Granda.
[3]
Granda.
[4]
Granda.
[5]
Granda.
[6]
Fidel Castro (1926-present) – Cuban revolutionary, prime minister (1959-1976),
president (1976-2008).
[7]
Noam Chomsky (1928-present) – multifaceted American scholar.
[8]
Martin van Buren (1782-1862) – eighth President of the United States
(18137-1841).
[9]
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) – nineteenth President of the United States
(1877-1881).
[10]
Bill Clinton (1946-present) – forty-second President of the United States
(1993-2001).
[11]
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) – fortieth President of the United States
(1981-1989).
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