One of the most special things about the MSL program is the MSL faculty – a collection of accomplished, interesting, and generous scholars and teachers. To help students get to know their faculty members a little bit better, we started the MSL Friday Faculty Fireside series: a series of one-on-one conversations between the director of the MSL program and some of our illustrious MSL professors. The inaugural session of the Friday Faculty Fireside series featured Professor Peter DiCola, who teaches IP Fundamentals (in both the residential and online formats) in the MSL program. During the session, MSL Program Director Leslie Oster grilled Professor DiCola about what makes him tick, his pet peeves, his favorite music, and more. Check out the interview below to learn more about Professor DiCola and stick with us for more Friday Faculty Fireside features!
The official biography: Professor DiCola joined the Northwestern faculty in 2008. He earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton. Peter DiCola uses empirical methods and applied economic models to study intellectual property law and media regulation. He received his JD and his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan. Much of his research has centered on the music industry. In graduate school, Professor DiCola worked with the non-profit Future of Music Coalition and he continues to serve on its board of directors. His current work focuses on copyright law’s regime for digital sampling and deregulation in the radio industry.
MSL Director Leslie Oster: Where did you grow up?
Professor Peter DiCola: I grew up in Downers Grove, IL (in the suburbs) and I went to a Catholic high school, Benet. So I’m from here; it was coming home to work at Northwestern after grad school.
Almost all of my extended family is here in the Chicago area. I’m half-Irish, half-Italian. There’s a marriage certificate going back to one branch of the family from the time of Civil War. We’re pretty connected to Chicago; my parents grew up on the south side. My dad is from Evergreen Park. My mom is from the Beverly neighborhood in the south side of Chicago.
My grandfather and great grandfather opened a small grocery store that they then turned into a seafood restaurant – DiCola’s Seafood. People will occasionally recognize my last name because of the restaurant, which still exists at 108th and Western on the south side; my Uncle Bob owns it. My dad opened his own version of the store and restaurant in the suburbs. Growing up, I worked for my dad and I learned how to operate a deep fryer.
LO: What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
PD: It’s funny because I haven’t had that many. I’ll say the strangest job is during a little period of teen rebellion and being tired of, you know, cleaning out the grease trap from the family restaurant. When I was a senior in high school, I didn’t work for my dad for a few months – instead I worked as a bank teller. The bank was at 97th and Lemont, which is right next to the Stevenson expressway, so I literally worked at the bank that is the best candidate in the world for a bank robbery. I mean if you wanted to get in, get out, and get on the highway to St. Louis, you could do it.
Actually, there was a bank robbery while I was there, but it was an inside job: a couple of tellers robbed the bank of traveler’s checks, which was super dumb because traveler’s checks are traceable, so the culprits went to jail, like right away. Luckily, it wasn’t while I was on duty. It was interesting because we all had to get interviewed about what happened that day and there was camera footage of us goofing off. We got in trouble for listening to music on the job.
LO: What is your all-time favorite musical group?
PD: I think that my favorite is probably REM. I grew up in that era. They’re the ones who have most consistently, at different times in my life, been in the rotation.
LO: What are your favorite albums?
PD: Disintegration by The Cure and Loveless by My Bloody Valentine.
LO: What is the best concert you’ve attended?
PD: I think the coolest experience I had would be when Stereolab, a band from the 90s, played at the club where I booked shows in college. It was a small show, about 200 people, the smallest venue on that tour for them. They had a French lead singer named Leticia Sadier. They played last summer (2019) at the Pitchfork festival. They had a reunion tour and they got cut a little bit short due to a rainstorm, but it was still really great to see them and they were good.
LO: Can you name the person (not in your family), place and thing that are most special to you?
PD: A person. A person on my mind this month is my Ph.D. advisor John DiNardo. There was no one ever like John. He was anarchist, politically, so he would start sentences with things like: “you know, where Noam Chomsky really sold out was…” He went to Michigan and ended up back there as a professor. He was just such a character – so interesting, and he really lived on his political beliefs, like he was totally non-hierarchical, so no matter who you were, he would spend time and talk to you and be interested in your opinion, and he didn’t care about who was the most famous. He was a wonderful guy.
My place would be the arboretum in Ann Arbor; it’s very nice to be able to take walks there. That was a very special place.
I think, sadly, I’m going to give a pandemic answer, but the thing is my iPhone –that is the object that I’m just glued to and I’m a little alarmed by that, but with the election, I think it’s going to become even more difficult to not constantly check the news.
LO: What is your favorite movie?
PD: My favorite movie is Ghostbusters from the 80s when I was a kid. So again, the formative time for movies, I think, is when you’re eight or nine, maybe. I thought that movie was so funny and I thought that Bill Murray’s character, who is also called Peter, was so funny and sarcastic. I still have friends who will text me different lines from that movie. I just love the idea of the space catalog where you can look up paranormal events. That’s hilarious!
LO: What is your favorite TV show?
PD: My wife and I are watching Community (I’m re-watching it). I really like it and also the West Wing. I 100% think they should reboot West Wing and have Rob Lowe run for President, just like Jed Bartlet told him: Someday, you’re going to run for president, Sam.
LO: What is your favorite food?
PD: My favorite food that’s not a dessert is probably lasagna, but I have a little bit of a hobby that I never get to do anymore: I really like to bake cookies. I have a sweet tooth, for sure.
LO: What is your favorite food to cook?
PD: Italian. The Italian side of my family didn’t give me any real-life inside knowledge except that I know it’s good to put some form of alcohol into the sauce.
LO: What is your favorite restaurant in Chicago?
PD: Restaurants, even before the pandemic, were a little bit of a distant memory for us with the kids, but I would say this little Thai restaurant on Clark Street called Thai Classic. Sadly, it burned down – no one was hurt, but there was a fire. Now we really like the Thai Room on Western and Irving Park; it’s one of our most frequent takeout choices.
Rapid-fire questions:
- Spicy or mild? Mild for me actually; I’m not much of a spice person.
- Sweet or salty? Sweet, like I said, I have a terrible sweet tooth.
- Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate, always!
- Fruit or vegetables? Fruit, probably. Yeah.
- Macaroni or cheese? Cheese for sure, big fan of Liz Lemon and the night cheese concept from 30 Rock.
LO: Do you have any pets?
PD: Yeah, we have two cats who are sisters. Their names are Maybelle and Sara, named after Sara Carter (The Carter Family) from old timey country music. Although to be clear, Maybelle and Sara were not sisters, they were cousins, but our cats are sisters.
LO: What are your pet peeves?
PD: Aside from the dude yesterday who wasn’t wearing a mask and had his dog off-leash at the park, I would say I really like the oxford comma.
LO: What is the 6 word memoir you would use to describe your pandemic experience?
PD: Desperately focusing on the silver lining.
LO: What is a place in the world that you’d like to visit at some point?
PD: I mentioned I’m Irish and Italian – I’ve never been to Ireland – I’ve only been to Italy briefly, passing through the airport; those are the places I would like to visit someday. And during the pandemic, I’ve thought a lot more about getting around to doing that stuff.
LO: What profession do you think you would do if you were not a law professor?
PD: Basically, I loved being a DJ on a radio station, and I love playing music and booking shows. I would love to have a radio show, and put on concerts. I thought about that career path a little bit, but I’m pretty risk averse, so I didn’t pursue it.
We’d like to extend a very special thank you to Professor DiCola for his generous spirit in agreeing to be interviewed as the first Friday Faculty Fireside professor. Stay tuned for more installments of this series!
