Historian Michael Rubinoff has been an Arizona State University faculty member for over 17 years. Before participating in a panel on Barry Goldwater’s libertarian legacy, he offered up the question he wishes his students would ask more often and the class he’d invent to teach next semester in the Zócalo green room.
How do you like your eggs?
Over well.
What superpower would you most like to have?
X-ray vision.
What are you keeping in your closet that you should have thrown out already?
Old shirts.
What do you do to beat the heat?
Stay indoors where it’s cool.
What question do you wish your students asked more often?
How is learning this particular material or topic going to be of benefit to me, now and in the future?
If you didn’t live in Arizona, where would you be?
I was in Washington, D.C. in between residencies in Arizona, so that might work. Alternately Chicago. I was born there. Maybe San Diego, if I had to pick a place, I guess. Good climate.
What’s your biggest irrational fear?
Injections.
What’s the ugliest tie you own?
I have a real old paisley that should be also discarded. [Laughs.]
What’s your favorite plant or flower?
I’ll tell you the ones I have in my backyard, I like them: hibiscus. The flowers last for about 24 to 48 hours. At this time of year they just keep blossoming and blossoming.
If you could invent a course to teach next semester, what would it be?
Icons of American Popular Culture.