A week ago, I returned from a six-week trip abroad. In this post, I’ll reflect on my goals for the trip and how they were (or were not) accomplished. In my next post, I’ll discuss the transition from traveling on sabbatical to being on sabbatical at home. Continue reading
Today I rebooted my mid-range career plan, on the timescale of about one month to two years out. To my surprise, I found myself using Trello. How did that happen? Read on. Continue reading
This week I decided to visit Emberfuel Coworking in downtown Walla Walla for their monthly first-Friday open house. My faculty office opens onto the CS Commons, which I’m sure will fill up with students again once classes resume. So, I’m looking for other places to work during my sabbatical.
I’ve been curious about Emberfuel for a while. I learned about the open house from Meetup.com, which a LACS colleague persuaded me to join at our annual meeting about a month ago. Here are my first impressions. Continue reading
Some have asked what books are in my piles of sabbatical reading in this picture, which appears in yesterday’s post.
It’s too much to put in a caption, so it gets a whole post of its own! I’ll list what’s in each pile starting from the left, top to bottom, with occasional commentary. Continue reading
For me, June marked the beginning of a year-long sabbatical. This meant an abrupt return to the research I almost entirely neglected during my first year back to teaching and administration after the birth of my child. All I had done was write two proposals – one for summer research, and one for the sabbatical itself.
This won’t be a post about the content of my research: that’s a topic for later in the year. Rather, this post discusses the habits I’ve retained from the academic year, new habits I am forming now, and habits I am considering for later in my sabbatical. Continue reading
This was my second summer of participating in Whitman’s student-faculty summer research program. Below I share my stories of two projects that were quite different in their content and their material circumstances.
Almost three weeks after Commencement, it finally feels like summer.
With the start of the spring semester, it’s been a a busy three weeks since my last post. This post will reflect on what’s been keeping me busy in teaching, scholarship, and service. Continue reading
Today is my last day of class. While that means students are filling out course evaluations and finals are coming up, it’s also a time to for me to look back at what I accomplished this semester and what my plans are for the upcoming break. It’s in the air, too: There’s been some discussion at Whitman the last few days about the teacher-scholar model. What does that mean for me, as the founder of a new program?