Walter Weyns
1. What was your favourite subject during your student days?
All subjects from the first year; I don't think I missed a single lesson. Bit weird, I know.
2. Have you ever failed an exam? If so, which subject?
Not at uni, but in secondary school: drawing.
3. What is the strangest thing you have ever done to relieve study stress?
On a bridge of the Antwerp Ring Road, I explained Louis Van Bladel's course in Contemporary Philosophy to cars passing under me. That way, I tried to force myself to get to the point quickly.
4. What was your most memorable student experience?
As a student representative, I attended the faculty council where an enraged professor Karel Dobbelaere stood up for a Leuven colleague whose contract was not renewed because the students thought he taught too sexist. It was high-level theatre that ended with slamming doors. By the way, a fine professor, Karel Dobbelaere.
5. Have you ever had a student job? What was it?
Dishwasher, two days. Book mover, three months. I think I held all the books on the city campus in 1980, including banned books. Surveyor: as a student, I took thousands of surveys, an experience that made me sceptical of survey research.
6. If you could go back in time, what would you advise your younger self to do?
My younger self was quite stubborn, who wouldn't have listened anyway, but I'm curious what my younger self would advise me now.
7. If you hadn't become a professor, what would you be doing now?
Demolition work, really, preferably with a demolition hammer in your hand (‘Sloopwerken Weyns’). Or nurseryman. Or librarian. Or teacher.
8. What was your first thought today?
‘Did it rain last night?’ Too bad you didn't ask what I dreamt about.
9. What is your favourite book, and why?
I don't really have a favourite book, but perhaps I have reread J.L. Borges' essays most often: what is more beautiful than knowledge paired with irony? And if I spend two minutes browsing Elias Canetti's notes, I have a clear head. Reading Marguerite Yourcenar makes me wiser.
10. What music or artist do you like to listen to?
As a blues lover, I love Peter Green's guitar playing before he went under. And the piano playing and cool of Vladimir Horowitz and Bill Evans. Street musicians can also charm me; I once spent an entire day on the Paris metro, hopping from one musician to another.
11. If you could meet one historical figure, who would it be and why?
I would have loved to have been at the table with him when young Adolphe Quetelet visited Goethe in March 1829 on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The founding father of statistics and the great man of letters exchanged views for days on ‘the average man’ and ‘the forms’. Unfortunately, that was all. Something tells me that the history of science missed a great opportunity there.
12. What is a travel destination that is still on your bucket list?
Rome. I have been there dozens of times, but it remains number one.
13. What is your favourite way to spend a free Sunday?
Ha, that's something to think about.
14. What is the nicest thing you have learned recently (outside your field)?
That bird cherry has a miraculous tendency to keep growing in height if you prune the side branches.
15. What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done?
Organised an artistic tenebrium: a kind of art gallery - basically a school's gymnasium - shrouded in complete darkness. Participants were allowed inside at their own risk to experience the art tactile. It was a success.
16. What is your most precious possession?
What is dearest to me, my wife, I don't really own I would dare say.
17. How do you unwind?
The question should rather be: how do I kick into action? The peace I have naturally.
18. Do you have a hidden talent that your students don't know about?
Patience. If patience is a talent, then I have a great talent.
19. When you look into the future, what do you see?
There is not one future, there are many, from the most hideous to the most blissful. It comes down to picking the right path.
20. What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Be patient and choose the right path.