Hailing from Lyon, France, is Art Historian Jean Georges Kempf – a professor who takes the differences in his background and understanding of America and applies his knowledge and appreciation of the United States into his teachings.
Kempf is on campus for a faculty exchange and will only be at UW for the remainder of the semester. While he teaches in Laramie, Professor Rachel Sailor of the UW Art Department has taken up residence in his stead at the Université Lumière Lyon.
His area of expertise lies in American photography history, which he happily teaches two classes on this semester. However, his experience teaching in Wyoming differs greatly from experience in France.
“One of the main differences out of several is that the sheer size of the groups is very different,” said Kempf. “Most of our [French] classes are much larger than American classes. We would be teaching more classes and larger groups.”
With this change in student numbers, Kempf finds it nice to differentiate the workload he presents to his classes.
“Traditionally, American students have many more exercises to do like writing, little quizzes, midterms, et cetera,” Kempf said. “We tend to have one midterm and one exam at the end and nothing much in between, so that makes a big difference because I think that American professors get to know their students more.”
Though French universities put less emphasis on the practice of different assignments, Kempf uses them to enrich the learning of his students.
Kempf’s colleague, Japanese Professor Noah Miles, said of Kempf’s teaching style, “There’s methodologies that are different. He’s an academic, so he’s emphasizing the skills that academics need – writing, history, critical thinking; all the things that academics do.”
In comparison to his teaching back home, Kempf enjoys the opportunity he has to create different relationships with the students he comes in contact with as he employs the use of academic skills and the implementation of them in his classes.
“He’s definitely passionate about history and photography,” said Art major Lydia Schmidt. “His teaching style is more conversational and he tries to engage the class with the lecture, which I find to be a good approach.”
Kempf’s engagement with American students often lets him reflect on his university coursework from the U.S. colleges he has had connections within his past. While working and studying in the United States, he has spent time on the coasts but remained close with contacts in the Rocky Mountain region that have allowed him to return to the area.
“What I was expecting was another side of the United States, and what I really like here is that it’s as different from New York as it gets,” Kempf said.
No matter what part of the country Kempf may be in, experiencing America is something that he prizes.
“America still means the ‘land of opportunity’ to him, I think, even in these complicated days,” said Miles.
In Laramie, Kempf is able to bring differences from his personal life and American studies discipline into play. Being in Lyon required him to teach broader subjects on American history and society, rather than allowing him to focus on his specialty.
“I’m not exactly teaching American studies here, but it’s always interesting,” said Kempf. “Americans have discovered that it’s interesting to talk with American studies specialists outside the United States because precisely our analysis of American studies is much more distant.”
Often, Americanists from outside the country know more about the U.S. than its own inhabitants do, but Kempf plays that off in such a way that coming from the outside allows him to offer greater perspective on the histories and issues being faced in America.
“In any kind of social science comparison, it is always productive [when] we look at it from not the center, but the margins,” Kempf said. “We look at certain aspects of your life here by comparison with what we know of societies in Europe. This is obviously enriching and American studies specialists have now, for the past 20 to 25 years, really invested in international American studies.”
As Kempf has come from a European country that has taught him how to view the world and America in a different way, the differences he brings to UW’s Art Department allow students to experience the realm of American studies and photography in a new way.
