Editor’s note: This week’s Campus Celebrity is one both of our CC’s are particularly fond of.
On my first day of college, freshman year, Maggie and I awkwardly stood in Murdock outside a large lecture hall. A strange and concerning statue of a bat like professor-monster hybrid stared hungrily at us. Our classroom was dark and locked, the professor was five minutes late and we wondered if he was going to show up at all. Suddenly a tall man with a ferocious bear and a tweed jacket, with elbow patches, panted up the stairs. He was struggling with a mountain of papers and fumbling with his keys. He pushed through the gaggle of anxious freshmen, who had all grown quiet at his arrival, to the door and dropped his keys. “F**ck!” He swore in a way that startled all of us. Though Langston is one of the most delightful, and kind hearted humans on the face of the Planate I will forever associate him with the menacing and whimsical Mr. Goodbody.
(It’s because of that Tree of Knowledge essay, and his obsession with my arch nemesis Kenneth Burke.)
David Langston is the sort of man you could listen to talk for hours, but he’d much rather have a conversation with you.
“The relationship with students is very important, and I believe we should teach students, not courses,” he says. “A student never comes in and stays the same, and the school needs to be supportive and understanding. Students are going to make mistakes and say things you don’t approve of or agree with, but that’s an opportunity for further dialogue, not condemnation.”
It’s clear talking to him that Langston has a great deal of respect for his students. He admires student activism and encourages students to be involved in their own education.
“I’m always glad when students tell me what they want to learn, and come to the faculty or administration and say ‘we’d like our educational system to have certain elements.’ I think there should be a forum where students can scheme and come up with plans for their own education.”
“MCLA is small, and it will support people who come along and have new ideas. There’s a sense of openness at the school that I think is terrific,” he continues. “One thing I think is good about the Honors program is that it provides occasions for students and faculty to interact outside of a classroom structure and allow them to create dialogues that might not otherwise occur.”
Langston believes that student organizations and involvement are a great way to foster these dialogues and encourage students to think independently about the subjects and concepts they are studying.
(Photo courtesy of iBerkshires)
“I don’t think education at college happens just in the classroom,” he says. “Students learn things from each other, and I think faculty should be involved in informal discussions with students. A discussion in a dorm room can be just as educational as a class. I don’t think of [clubs and organizations] as students applying what they learn, I think it’s them workshopping what they already think.” He stresses the importance of educators listening to their students and having a back-and-forth dialogue with them.
During his undergrad career, Langston was a history major, with double minors in philosophy and literature. He later earned a degree in theology from Union Theological Seminary, followed by a PhD from Stanford.
“I have always been interested in the ways that culture is not just a collection of objects, but has a unifying character to it, it has themes,” he says of his work in theology. “I’m interested in the secular theories and themes that hold a culture together that work with theological methods.”
He says his favorite course to teach is American Renaissance. The course looks at different varieties of Romantic thinking that characterize culture in the nineteenth century and how they affect discussions of contemporary subjects like the environment, LGBT and women’s issues.
“Not a lot has changed in American history and culture in 200 years,” he says, “In the sense that we go back to the same themes over and over again with different issues.”
“The fundamental problem we keep coming back to in our current discussion is the contradiction in any democratic society between freedom or liberty and equality, and thinking about how that can be negotiated through social structures, through legal processes and political rhetoric, and I think it’s something everyone should come out of school learning to deal with,” he says.
(Photo courtesy of iBerkshires)
“Some people say the 21st century is going to be the century of religion; it will become the organizing motif of the century, just as the 20th century was secular. If this is true, it’s going to be a challenge to the issues of women’s equality and LGBT equality we’ve been struggling to create new systems for. There’s going to be a struggle for it, and the college needs to prepare for that discussion over the next 30 years or so.”
Langston first came to MCLA 31 years ago, eager to teach at a public liberal arts school.
“I’m a big believer in public education,” he says, “I believe it’s a crucible of citizenship.” He also says that “Every college should be a liberal arts college.”
“I’m a strong believer in liberal arts as a way of thinking about subjects. They’re not a topic, they’re a method of thinking. People think there’s a contradiction between liberal arts and professional studies,” he says, “I think that’s wrong; the liberal arts are the muscle and bone of every professional program, and they are intrinsic to professional education. You don’t do liberal arts and then professional training, liberal arts continues all the way through education.”
Langston says he believes the college has improved dramatically in the last 15 years or so and has a bright future. “I won’t be around to see all of it,” he jokes, “but you will.”