The first lesson imparted by Frank Costigliola as we motor and meander around his 195-acre farm a few miles from campus in Storrs is his secret to balancing research, writing, teaching, and farming: a carefully calibrated system of napping.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do, and I recommend it, is short naps. Five to 20 minutes. You wake up feeling like it\u2019s a new day,\u201d says Costigliola, a U.S. foreign relations history expert in his 50th year as a professor, his 24th at UConn. \u201cFirst of all, I don\u2019t drink coffee because coffee interferes with naps. Coffee is a zero-sum game. What I do for a quick boost sometimes, is eat one of these chocolate-covered cherries, which are superb, and one of those, because I don\u2019t drink coffee, does the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has a lot more to say about the naps, but the point is he needs the energy. Costig\u00adliola wakes in the predawn hours to respond to students\u2019 online discussion posts for the seminar he debuted last fall, \u201cPersonality and Power Since 1900,\u201d and tend to his 12 beef cattle, or work on his latest book (a \u201ccradle-to-grave\u201d biography of Cold War\u2013era diplomat George F. Kennan), or lead the loving restoration of his property to honor its history and carry on the farming tradition of the area.<\/p>\n
The land, called Dunhamtown, as it was owned and farmed by the Dunham family from 1695 to 1873, contains multitudes, like Costigliola himself. Corrals and pastures, flowing water and outbuildings, wooded trails \u2014 each enclave a stunning backdrop for a meandering two-hour conversation about history and farming and, really, about life. Join us, will you?<\/p>\n