 Rob Truffaut John Beasley Murray So the idea of this video is a little bit of an introduction for you to say a little about yourself I wonder if you could start up about with talking something about your background what you did before coming to UBC Well, it's hard to remember what I did coming Before I came to UBC for a couple of reasons one is it was a very long time ago and two in some ways I've never really been anywhere but UBC and did my bachelor's degree here starting in 1978 I guess 78 Did one year UBC left for what I thought was going to be a year Turned out to be three years wouldn't recommend that to everybody worked out okay for me I did some other stuff that was all legal, but not really Germane to to university life and then I left that life and came back to UBC and finished my BA I guess one without a bin early 1980s I Mid-1980s 1984 85 and I went to Ontario and did a master's degree at McMaster and political science And I came back to UBC and did my PhD and in 1995 I answered a call for a one-year appointment in arts one and I've been teaching in arts one and political science UBC ever since so I've been here a long time. Well, you do you have a history as a car mechanic. I understand I do that was the three years of non-university life. I was printed singing as a mechanic. That's correct so, how did you come to? choose political science and International relations as your particular special specialization Well, it kind of shows me because when I was you know, one of the reasons I left UBC after that first year was I wasn't you know, I was in a bit of a cloud in terms of what I wanted to do and you know sort of drifting around and You know again, this is not a recipe for other students to follow necessarily But I left and I did wind up apprenticing and really had no intention of coming back to UBC But for a whole variety of reasons I eventually did and one I did I you know I always had an interest in political science but I had a stronger interest in literature and I was actually planning on majoring in the English literature and That's where I was going by my third year. I was only taking political science courses as electives And I probably shouldn't admit this but I did quite a bit better in my English courses and my political science courses at that point But then I suddenly decided partway through the third year that my real passion was political science So I wound up doing a minor in English split and then majoring in political science But I had to go back and take a couple of prerequisite courses To make that happen So I was a third-year student taking some second-year courses Which was actually quite good because it gave me a bit of a leg up on some of those other students But that's partly by accident, but also, you know I realized that I was very interested in political science or interested in political life Let's put it that way. Can you say something about your research? What kinds of things you've written on or working on? I have several books All of them in the area of international relations theory My specialization is is more theoretical philosophical than it is What we would call I guess for one of the better term real world politics I do have a strong interest in American foreign policy And in the war system as it's sometimes called But I'm primarily interested in theory and my PhD supervisor Cal Holste was primarily a theory person And he was the major attractor for me Coming to UBC in the first place was to work with him and his interests rubbed off on me Although we didn't always see I.D.O.I. He was very very professional, supportive and cultivated my interest in theory Which is where, you know, I've always kind of resided As somebody who specializes in theories of international relations And how to theorize a subject And what's your approach to teaching? Well, I guess it depends on the course And they're very large courses for difficult to act as if it's a small class But in a small class seminar type setting As we have an arts one, we have the luxury of involving students as much as possible Even in large third and fourth year courses Which used to be small third and fourth year courses Even in those large lecture courses I try as much as possible to get student involvement Without having the course go off the rails But at the end of the day it's a very simple philosophy Nothing terribly profound We're here for the students, all of the students Not just this quote unquote good ones All of them and they all have to be given an opportunity to find their voice While maintaining the structure of the classroom at the same time So my basic philosophy is get students feeling as comfortable as possible Well, you know, remember you have to keep a professional environment as well And what attracted you to arts one and what continues to attract you I guess you're now the head of the program What attracted me to arts one was I mean, first of all, I knew about the program because I'd taken the program I was again in a previous incarnation I didn't come straight to university I finished grade 12, I went to high school in Surrey And I wound up first year installing gutters Putting on vinyl siding and ultimately working in a gear factory None of those things appealed to me in the long term But while I was working in the gear factory in summer, which I was a very good wage So it was appealing from that point of view And I was kind of at a crossroads at the end of that summer And I worked with three or four other guys who One of them had just finished a BA in history at UBC And happened over coffee one day to mention a program called Arts One And I said it was a great program And that he'd really enjoyed it And that they got to read a lot of different texts And it was perfect for somebody who wasn't entirely sure what they were going to major in It all sounded good to me He then said something about the pubs and beer and stuff like that Which appealed to me even more at the time Because by that time it was my team that was allowed to be interested in that sort of thing So I came partly for the wrong reason But you know, joking aside The social side of Arts One appealed to me strongly The idea of being in a small group And in fact, there's one person from that group that I'm still in touch with today Lowly's many years later Now, the books you're teaching or you're lecturing on this year Quite a range from Sophocles, Antigone, Hobbes, Rousseau, Conrad, Heart of Darkness Can you tell us about one or two of those? Well, of those texts, Antigone is the only one I've yet to lecture on But it's something that interests me a great deal Because to me it poses a very important political issue right at the sort of beginning Of the birth of what we today call the modern nation state And that is the conflict between an individual's private conscience, in this case Antigone And her desire to bury her dead brother and the decree of the state In this case Crayon, or Crayon, however one pronounces that name I understand there's some debate about that Who wants to insist on the primacy of the state That's going to be a very interesting text I think to work with Hobbes' Leviathan is something I've always felt Well, I shouldn't say I always felt as an undergraduate I certainly didn't feel at all comfortable with Hobbes But it's something of, it's a bit like Guinness, it's an acquired taste I've acquired a strong taste for Hobbes I think it's a masterpiece of political theory I don't think he's got it entirely right They're always going to be flaws But I think it's a very important contribution And something I really enjoy lecturing on And enjoy trying to convince students to enjoy Because I've been through the experience of hating Hobbes quite passionately You know the struggle I know the struggle and it must say it takes some doing, it takes some years But I got an email from a student this morning Who thanked me for talking about Hobbes and Machiavelli last year Machiavelli's something else I, we're not doing Machiavelli this year But it's something I lectured on last year And Rousseau and you know, it was quite different from Hobbes So it's a nice juxtaposition having those two texts And she emailed me this morning and said I've just enrolled in a political theory course for next year And we're doing all of the same texts that we did in Arts 1 As political philosophical texts And she was very grateful for that Of course I was happy to receive her gratitude Even though it was a complete accident that that overlap occurred Now what are you looking forward to this particular year that's coming up? You know, on the one hand I've been in Arts 1 a long time So I'm a bit of an old hand at this But by the same token I don't think I've become jaded I think I'm still, there's still things to be interested and excited about And the one thing I'm particularly interested in Is seeing how this new theme works Test driving this new theme remake remodel Which you had a lot to do with articulating I think it's going to be a very good theme But it's not clear yet where it's going to go I think that's one of the appealing things about that theme Is it's not entirely sure what we're going to make of it And I guess we'll see what the students make of it But, you know, treating the familiar as new And advice averse I think is going to be exciting And what advice do you have for a new student about to start Arts 1? So many things that you could say to a new student about to start Arts 1 But I think the most practical piece of advice I could give a student In terms of survival would be Don't take it too lightly I mean, certainly be prepared to have fun And be excited about the journey you're about to embark on But remember that you are getting credit for three full courses It may seem like less work than other courses But the reality is there's a lot of reading There's a lot of writing There's a lot of thinking Some of the texts are quite short But that doesn't mean that they're not difficult and demanding And don't take them lightly And if you do the work and if you stick with it And you're willing to be exposed to different genres And different traditions And different dispositions toward knowledge and so on Then you'll get the most out of it But you really have to have that passion But you also have to be willing to work And that's not to say that you can't have some fun as well Because you will I mean, there's that social side to Arts 1 That you get in a small learning cohort And take advantage of that and get the most out of it So two pieces of advice really work And don't take it lightly Stick around, don't disappear Don't fall off the face of the earth It's never a recipe for success And two, get the most out of it This may be the only time in your university career That you're in a class setting that is this small And also, here's a third piece of advice Don't be intimidated by the small size of the classes Especially the tutorials I mean, some students feel uncomfortable in that environment You'll be okay, you'll survive Everybody, you know, is a little bit intimidated by that As I like to say to my students at the beginning Of the year, tears will be shed But I eventually Stop crying And I have those That's a joke Okay, great Well, thank you very much, Rob Thank you