sabbatical-ing

A woman I met at a bar asked me what I thought about Berlin. Then, interrupting my own answer, she offered her own emphatic one: "I hate all this history shit. I am so over with it. Blah, blah, blah, wars. I'm done." This is at first blush hardly an encouraging thought to a professor with some minor historical inclinations, but I think we should all take it in stride. For one, my conversation partner here was Ukrainian, and I venture that there's probably a narrow range of war-related topics that seem interesting and worth the affective price of admission to her right now.  For another, I kind of get it. I react with my own distaste to the idea of visiting Germany and caring a little bit  too much  about rehearsing 20th century events. Doubtlessly, there's a way of bringing a kind of History Channel energy to the endeavour that is unappealing to everyone around you and boxes you in to a story that has a fixed beginning and end. Who has literal or physic time for t...

Ok, for all you academics out there, wondering how to travel during your sabbatical (or maybe just a summer) on someone else's dime, here's my guide for you! It's heavily cribbed off of Jonathan Sterne's advice , which he was always so keen to share. Here's to paying a few of those favours forward... First off, this is a problem you're probably going to need a spreadsheet to solve. At least, this is my tried and true strategy.  You'll have a column for links (what's the actually useful website you need to refer to, not the 101 vague descriptions of innovation and strategic plans that the sponsoring institution may have published?), a column for deadlines (essential), one for benefits (is there a stipend? travel assistance? housing?), and one for application requirements (do you just hand in a CV + proposal, or do you need to get someone from within the institution to sponsor you? Are you oblidged to bother your friends for reference letters?).  Next, do ...

I shan't kiss and tell, but here's a few interesting things that stood out in my visit to one of the world's great bastions of queer life. First, we've got some new terminology to master!  FLINTA*  is a common German shorthand for 'everybody but cis guys.' We make a similar gesture often enough in North America, but without the benefit of an acronym that can stand in for a positive definition, rather than a negative one. I like this a lot.  There's also TIN (I presume for trans, intersex, and nonbinary people) which add an air of metallurgical mystique to events postings---another positive. This Ain't TERF Island I'm sure they're out there somewhere, scurrying from corner or corner, but I didn't see any signs of TERFs around. Instead, there was a lot of emphasis on telling them, preemptively, to fuck off. Most pleasing. Mapping the landscape There is a density of queer people here that allows for the luxury of differentiation. This is also to...

Hello dear reader, Welcome (back?) to blogging.  I'd like to claim that I never left, but I haven't made any such long-form, public address since about 2014. It's too bad; I think there's real value in being able to shape and share thoughts that exceed the character limit of your contemporary content sharing platform of choice, and do so in a way that preserves the writer's context and intentions across time.  The old Internet was a kinder, more generous place. All its tools are still here, even if they're buried under glossier, dopamine-microdosing forms of giving and receiving attention. So, here's to picking them up again, and seeing what happens. Of course, it helps to have a project. Here's mine: I'm on sabbatical this semester, spending half a year on the road, jumping from country to country, fellowship to fellowship. This brings me away from well worn habits and friendships, most of my teaching responsibilities, and my beloved cats. In turn, ...