Three years and six days

In the week before the 2016 US general election, I took to Facebook with a series of posts that were meant to capture "America in Six Days," or at least, one idiosyncratic vision of America (mine) as witnessed through six cultural artifacts, plus a seventh bonus day in the immediate wake of the election. I … Continue reading Three years and six days

Triana

I have been many kinds of tourist. I dutifully read David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" before embarking on my own week-long Caribbean cruise, though my cynicism at the mass marketed tourist experience could, in the end, not match Wallace's. I have been the thrill seeker who pays a pretty … Continue reading Triana

Loretto (a poem)

I've spent a lot of time in my senior seminar course in the early part of this semester talking about writing, and specifically about the limits and foibles of academic social science writing. I encouraged the students to read widely and write write write, including reading and writing things that challenge their normal interests and … Continue reading Loretto (a poem)

Research update

So far this summer I have spent a lot of time traveling, as well as many, many hours dealing with technical and bureaucratic headaches associated with a new IT system at my university. It has been challenging not just to find time to write meaningful and interesting blog posts here, but also to get research … Continue reading Research update

On becoming Canadian

We arrive 10 minutes before the appointed 1:00 pm deadline on my invitation letter. It reads less as an invitation and more as a list of instructions, but represents the final step on my road to Canadian citizenship. The large waiting room is already packed, families in nice clothes, children laughing and running around, those … Continue reading On becoming Canadian

How (not) to conference

In early April, I once again attended the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), this time in Washington, DC. While there, I presented, along with my research assistant/co-author, a paper on the geographies of rotationality in the US and Canadian foreign services. Rotationality is a basic condition of work in almost all … Continue reading How (not) to conference

Two years and some links

I have now been doing this blog, with an increasingly haphazard publication schedule, for two years. The pace of writing has slowed considerably as I have taken on more administrative duties in my department, where I am now undergraduate program chair and the principal academic advisor, tried to buckle down and refocus some effort on … Continue reading Two years and some links