When I joined the fall 2006 Coetzee seminar taught by recent Johnston Center graduate Matthew Gray and our editor, Bill McDonald, I was self-conscious about my status as a historian with over twenty years of experience in the classroom. I feared that students would expect me to read as an “expert,” yet like them I was a newcomer to J. M. Coetzee, his work, and South African fiction generally. At first I planned to compensate by relying on my disciplinary expertise, including some knowledge of comparative South African and North American history, and by developing an essay on a long-contemplated theme — “fathers and daughters” — for this collection. But when the seminar started, I found little inspiration to be a “visiting expert” because I felt as newly hatched as the students. So I decided to follow that feeling, viewing the course largely as a beginner as well as a veteran. It proved to be an eye-opening choice in several ways. For example, when I expressed my ignorance or ambivalence or frustration with Coetzee, it seemed to make it easier for my younger classmates to do the same. It allowed me to empathize with the fears that most undergraduates bring to a challenging class.