Interview with Richard Calis

Richard Calis has been working at Utrecht University since 2022 and has been HHP domain coordinator of History and Art History since this academic year, taking over from our current Honours director, Frans Willem Lantink. Richard has studied and worked in several places all over the world and is excited about the opportunity to introduce himself to the Honours community. In light of his new appointment within the programme, we interviewed him for the blog. The interview was originally conducted in Dutch, and has subsequently been translated into English. In this interview, Richard gives us the following message: give it everything you’ve got; A story about creativity within academia and pushing boundaries.

Michelle: Would you like to introduce yourself?

Richard: I’m Richard Calis and I’m an Assistant Professor in Cultural History here at the UU. I specialise mainly in what is known as the history of knowledge or intellectual history, it always has a different name. I’m basically interested in how people try to understand the world around them, not really in the philosophical sense, but more in the practical sense. So suppose you want to know something about another country or another culture or you want to know something about nature, how does that work? What tools do you have at your disposal? How do you know what’s fact and what’s fiction? My teaching responsibilities not only include being HHP coordinator for the (art) history students but I also coordinate Introduction to History, the very first course of the BA History programme. This is where we expose students to the idea that history is not about facts, but about approaches.

Michelle: And what time period are you mainly working on?

Richard: My research is largely about the early modern period, so that’s 1400-1800, but my interests are actually much broader. What really gets me going are people with peculiar lives and the stories we tell to understand the past. When you study those things, you can’t confine yourself to a specific period or place.

Michelle: You started as domain coordinator of History at HHP last September. Why did you want to join the HHP?

Richard: That’s a very good question. I always enjoy meeting and teaching different types of students. When I teach Introduction to History, I mostly see students at the beginning of their university education. In the HHP community, I mentor students from the second year until they graduate. Seeing how people develop in those two years is a real privilege. It’s also a responsibility that I take very seriously: I did a lot of mentoring activities before coming to Utrecht because I want all students to feel welcome at the university, and I want them to have someone whom they can ask questions if they are new to this world. HHP students are usually also very curious, and push you as a teacher by asking challenging questions. That’s always very exciting, and keeps you sharp and on your toes.

Michelle: And what do you like most about being involved in the Honours Programme?

Richard: Well, obviously that the students are curious, that they ask questions, and that they are ambitious. I like that. Sometimes I feel that we in the Netherlands are too negative about ambition. For me, university has always been the place where I was able to explore and let the mind wonder. It’s a real privilege, I think, to get an education. My parents never went to university, and I am really grateful I got the chance to study and do whatever I thought was interesting at the time. I like that there are students who are also exploring such options and who are trying to make the most of their time here. And by the way, I also think that studying means going out with friends and doing all sorts of fun things. But that doesn’t mean that you cannot also be incredibly interested in what you study. Work hard, play hard, is what studying should be about. So it is great that young people can find in the university a place to push themselves, learn about themselves in new ways, and take on challenges. That’s not to say that you always have to do that. There is so much pressure from society these days to do and be all kinds of things. The kind of motivation and drive I am talking about comes from within, and is born out of curiosity and passion. You should never push yourself if that’s what people want you to do; then you’ll just burn yourself out. Looking for challenges is more about being open to being surprised and moving out of your comfort zone, however much of a cliche that is. 

Michelle: So in a way you’re talking about the freedom of the programme?

Richard: Yes, exactly. Ironically, though, I sometimes notice that students struggle with the freedom that the program offers. When I ask my students to prepare something for class, some of them say: ‘I don’t know how to do that’. And that’s great: if you don’t know how to do it, then go and try it. You’ll always learn something. Teachers are there to guide students but ultimately you should discover things yourself. It’s scary to be thrown in at the deep end, but with the right people around you, it can also be really productive and exciting.

Michelle: Can you give an example?

Richard: Well, I taught a course this year in which I assigned a book about time and calendars for the first class. It’s one of those books from Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series. It’s extremely learned, but also somewhat unreadable: it’s just facts about how different cultures have different calendars. In class, I asked the students  ‘Who can explain to me how the Etruscan calendar works?’ No one could—and with reason, since it’s rather complicated. And then I just told the students that I couldn’t either and that I didn’t like this book. At that moment, you just heard this sigh of relief going through the classroom, knowing that they weren’t the only ones who didn’t understand what to say about the book. Of course, I would never do this to shame a student. It’s more about reflection. Everyone was thinking: ‘Can I do this?’ Whereas you could also be thinking, ‘this is a bad book’ or ‘why don’t I understand this?’ I think the process of being critical—or learning to be critical—is part of what university should be about. And that includes making mistakes. It’s a shame that we’re all trying to be perfect these days and that there is so little room for error. I, too, feel that pressure, and it’s not conducive to the kinds of things we should be doing at a university. 

Michelle: Portfolio activities are a big part of HHP. If you were allowed to organise your own portfolio activity, what would it be?

Richard: Well, right now I am very busy, so I would probably go for the easiest option, something that students may recognise. [laughs] So something like joining a committee. But I’m a big fan of cultural exchange and coming into contact with people from other cultures. So if I had unlimited budget and time, I would probably try and arrange an exchange with students from another university or country, around a shared theme.

Michelle: I am going to ask some more personal questions, don’t be alarmed! Im saw on Twitter that you love cocktails. What is your favourite cocktail to make or drink?

Richard: Hahaha, fantastic! Almost ten years ago, I moved to the US to do my PhD. When I would go out with friends, I never knew what to drink. I don’t really like beer and wine was just so expensive and not great at all. Most menus, however, boasted all of these amazing cocktails that I’d never heard of. Some friends of mine drank them, and soon so did I, as I’ve always had a sweet tooth. At a certain point, I began organising parties where I would bartend and make cocktails, something my friends highly encouraged. And then in the pandemic, I also had to do something, so then I just created a kind of home bar. I toyed with the idea of starting a TikTok channel or an Instagram page, but that never materialised. Anyhow, my favourite cocktail is probably a French 75. It’s a good thing we’re talking about it now, too, because that’s a really good cocktail, especially for the winter. It’s with gin, sugar syrup, lemon and then topped with champagne or prosecco. It’s very strong and you don’t notice that when you’re drinking it, but it tasted fantastic: very fresh and sparkling. I think it’s named after a machine gun from WWII that would shoot 75 rounds a minute, because it hits pretty hard. And just in case my superiors at the UU are also reading this blog: always drink in moderation, especially when you’re drinking cocktails! 

Michelle: Do you have any pets?

Richard: I do! I have a cat who was adopted from Greece by my partner. Her name is Ria, which is probably short for Elefteria. Over the summer my father got a Rough Collie, and she’s obviously the love of my life! No, honestly, I am a real animal lover and I like all kinds of animals, anything big or small, except insects, which are not animals.

Michelle: What is the most fun course you have ever taught?

Richard: I think that’s the course with an incredibly boring title—‘Historiography’—which I taught together with my PhD supervisor in Princeton. It’s a course that introduces History Majors to the different ways of writing history. It’s very similar to the first-year course I teach here at the UU, but for more advanced students. It’s also similar to a course I took myself in a master’s where each week we read a canonical work of history. What better way to learn about how we can write history?! 

* (below is a list of some of these works)

Calis: Perhaps also fun for the blog: I am going to teach a course next year on the cultural history of coffee and cocoa. The idea is to trace how these products came to the Western world not simply as products but as cultural practices. How people consumed coffee in the Middle East, for instance, profoundly shaped how it came to be consumed in Europe in the course of the early modern period. And who can envision a life today without coffee or chocolate? So we’ll also spend some time on coffee culture nowadays, hopefully talking to baristas and making coffee and chocolate themselves. I’m going to spend way too much time on that…

Michelle: That’s an undergraduate course?

Richard: Yes

Michelle: I think quite a lot of students would be interested in that. It’s also a bit more personal of course.

Richard: I hope so! It’s going to be open for history students and for people from Languages and Cultures. Everyone is very enthusiastic about it and they think I’ll get numerous seminar groups, but we’ll see.

Michelle: But do you like chocolate and coffee yourself?

Richard: Well, I definitely do eat chocolate. I’m semi-addicted to chocolate, I’d say. But, ironically, I don’t drink coffee—except in Italy, where it’s too hot to eat and where getting a coffee al banco is more like a social thing, I guess, and a good way to talk to some people. 

Michelle: A word about the Berlin trip, how did you like it?

Calis: It was a lot of fun! It was really meticulously organised. So all the kudos to the organising committee. All of the themes of the Honours Explorations course—which concerned aspects of ‘time’—reemerged, and we did some wonderful walking tours and were expertly guided through the museums. Frans Willem was there, as was my colleague Jan van Doren, with whom I taught the class this year. And we sang Over de muur. So what more do you want? While in Berlin, we also saw new connections, so hopefully next year we can include a movie like Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), which is about a woman who falls into a coma just before the fall of the Berlin wall. When she wakes up, her children pretend that nothing has happened and she still lives in East Berlin. The movie is essentially about what the Germans call Ostalgie: a nostalgia for the days when East Berlin was still East Berlin. Great movie, and very apt for a course on time! 

Michelle: Last but not least, what are your two truths and one lie? 

Richard: I have run a marathon, I am a big fan of Game of Thrones, and I have an obsession with sunglasses!

* Classic books from question about favourite course:

• The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis (1983) 
• The Cheese and the Worms (1976) by Carlo Ginzburg. 
• Gay New York (1994) by George Chauncey. This book showed how in the early 20th century there was a vibrant and visible ‘gay scene’ in New York, contrary to the ideas of gays being closeted before the 60s. 
• Neighbours (2000) by Jan Gross. This book narrates how the Christian population of a village in Poland, when they hear that the Nazis are coming, massacre their Jewish fellow inhabitants. That book made a big impression on Richard. It also completely overturned the idea of the Polish people being only victims of, on the one hand, Stalinism and, on the other, the Nazis. It turned out those people could be both victims and perpetrators. It is a book that has stayed with Richard, because of how Gross told the story: so powerful, yet so moving. It’s a great book. 

Richard believes that history is a kind of art, and writing doesn’t have to be very literary, but how we write is always inseparable from how we construct the past. All of the books Richard recommended taught him that notion, and he likes going back to them to learn something new. That’s why they’re canonical—for him at least.