Professor Christopher Merrill's Visit to the Faculty of World Studies

Last Tuesday, September 29th, Professor Christopher Merrill from the University of Iowa came to our faculty. We, the students of North American Studies, had a meeting with him in the afternoon. First there was an introduction, and then Dr. Merrill talked. He talked about himself, what he does at the University of Iowa, and told us about his personal ideas on the American society, politics, and literature. After his talk, the students began to ask him questions, mostly political, and some social and literary. Here I don't intend to get into the details of the questions and answers, some of which I asked myself, but I want to give my evaluation of him as an American. Based on his answers, I think he was very much in love with what we call the "American Ideology". His answers were in line with the ideology most Americans hold about their system of government. He supported the U.S. overnment fundamentally, but criticized the policies of the Bush administration, and thought that the wrong policies of the past are now corrected by the new president, Barak Obama. This is something I really doubt. However, on the personal side, he was a good man and teacher who was fair enough to accept the wrongdoings of his government.