A week in the life of...me?
This is a busy week here at the University of Scranton. On Monday, Sister Helen Prejean spoke to our first year class as part of our Ignatian Values in Action lecture. Our incoming students spent the summer reading Dead Man Walking and it has been a part of the first year seminar (FYS) classes that many of us our teaching. We should have video of her address available on our YouTube channel so.
I am co-teaching a FYS seminar on Making Meaning of 9/11. I have taught an upper-division class on September 11, 2001 and Beyond several times but this one is a little different in terms of the audience, content, and evaluation. Yesterday, Tin Kelley of the New York Times visited our class. Tina and Kevin Ryan were previous Ignatian Values in Action lectures for their book Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope. Tina came back to the University these few days to speak with students about living a meaningful life. In our class, she spoke about the Portraits of Grief that she had worked on which told the stories of many of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks.
I am teaching a course on Comparative Civil Wars. While I read the book and watched the video previously, this week is the first time that I am using Brian Steidle's The Devil Came on Horseback. Finally, I am teaching two independent studies on Latin American Politics and one honors reader on immigration. One of the projects my honors student and I are working on this week is the crafting of expert witness testimony for an asylum case for a young man from El Salvador.
One of my other jobs on campus is coordinator of our Education for Justice office. I've been busy getting our Facebook and Twitter pages up and running. We have helped organize a series of events this semester to celebrate the life of Dorothy Day. Last night we hosted the film Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story. Fortunately, a colleague covered the film for me at the last minute so that I could go home.
We also have events scheduled this week on the State of Scranton, including a talk on homelessness, especially among veterans in the local area, by Msgr. Kelly Catholic Social Services. Finally, we are also hosting a watch party on Thursday morning to share in the experience of Pope Francis' address to Congress. Several of our students have decided to make the trek out to Philadelphia, but, unfortunately, no one has organized a trip our of fear of large crowds. Understandable to an extent, but it is a one of a kind opportunity to see a Jesuit Pope given that we are a Jesuit and Catholic institution.
You can see a list of Education for Justice activities here. Fortunately, I finished the newsletter last week so that was one thing off my place. Last week was also two chairs' meetings with the dean and associate dean and a Community Colleagues meeting. I also had a meeting on Monday as part of the Latin American Studies and Women's Studies executive committee. Fortunately, I've only averaged about two meetings a week this semester.
Finally, there some effort to get some scholarship done. I am currently working on a conditional acceptance of a conditional acceptance of a revise and resubmit of a revise and resubmit that initially received an editor's revision. It's been a bit over two years now and quite the struggle. I was hoping to finish the revisions this week but we shall see what happens.
In the meantime, I have to finish putting together a presentation for a conference I am going to Monday at the Dr. an-Jyun Hou Conference at Binghamton University. This year's conference theme is Political Violence: Bargaining Through Coercion. I am presenting a paper on the FMLN's electoral performance from 1994 to 2015. Alberto Martin and I have been working on it and hope to get it out under review by the end of the year.
I should be working on the Freedom House reports for Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama right now since they are due in October, but they will have to wait until after this weekend's conference. There have also been a few interviews, some skype / some phone, with reporters contributing to Vice, The Economist and Ozy.com. It's not always clear what is going to happen with these contributions.
Then there's family life - karate practice, soccer practices, and softball games. My wife and I have two children and two foster children, including one four-week old girl who is new to the family. Things have been quite hectic these last few weeks which is probably why blogging has been a little haphazard.
Anyway, I thought that I would give you an update on what else is going on outside the blog. You can also take a look at my recent post up at Warscapes with Guatemala's Fight to End Impunity. It started off as a pre-election piece and then to a day after election report and then to what it is. It's gotten pulled in a number of directions since originally written and is what it is.
I'm sure I'm missing something but that's where I am at. I guess this is an update to Who is this guy writing about Central American politics?
I am co-teaching a FYS seminar on Making Meaning of 9/11. I have taught an upper-division class on September 11, 2001 and Beyond several times but this one is a little different in terms of the audience, content, and evaluation. Yesterday, Tin Kelley of the New York Times visited our class. Tina and Kevin Ryan were previous Ignatian Values in Action lectures for their book Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope. Tina came back to the University these few days to speak with students about living a meaningful life. In our class, she spoke about the Portraits of Grief that she had worked on which told the stories of many of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks.
I am teaching a course on Comparative Civil Wars. While I read the book and watched the video previously, this week is the first time that I am using Brian Steidle's The Devil Came on Horseback. Finally, I am teaching two independent studies on Latin American Politics and one honors reader on immigration. One of the projects my honors student and I are working on this week is the crafting of expert witness testimony for an asylum case for a young man from El Salvador.
One of my other jobs on campus is coordinator of our Education for Justice office. I've been busy getting our Facebook and Twitter pages up and running. We have helped organize a series of events this semester to celebrate the life of Dorothy Day. Last night we hosted the film Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story. Fortunately, a colleague covered the film for me at the last minute so that I could go home.
We also have events scheduled this week on the State of Scranton, including a talk on homelessness, especially among veterans in the local area, by Msgr. Kelly Catholic Social Services. Finally, we are also hosting a watch party on Thursday morning to share in the experience of Pope Francis' address to Congress. Several of our students have decided to make the trek out to Philadelphia, but, unfortunately, no one has organized a trip our of fear of large crowds. Understandable to an extent, but it is a one of a kind opportunity to see a Jesuit Pope given that we are a Jesuit and Catholic institution.
You can see a list of Education for Justice activities here. Fortunately, I finished the newsletter last week so that was one thing off my place. Last week was also two chairs' meetings with the dean and associate dean and a Community Colleagues meeting. I also had a meeting on Monday as part of the Latin American Studies and Women's Studies executive committee. Fortunately, I've only averaged about two meetings a week this semester.
Finally, there some effort to get some scholarship done. I am currently working on a conditional acceptance of a conditional acceptance of a revise and resubmit of a revise and resubmit that initially received an editor's revision. It's been a bit over two years now and quite the struggle. I was hoping to finish the revisions this week but we shall see what happens.
In the meantime, I have to finish putting together a presentation for a conference I am going to Monday at the Dr. an-Jyun Hou Conference at Binghamton University. This year's conference theme is Political Violence: Bargaining Through Coercion. I am presenting a paper on the FMLN's electoral performance from 1994 to 2015. Alberto Martin and I have been working on it and hope to get it out under review by the end of the year.
I should be working on the Freedom House reports for Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama right now since they are due in October, but they will have to wait until after this weekend's conference. There have also been a few interviews, some skype / some phone, with reporters contributing to Vice, The Economist and Ozy.com. It's not always clear what is going to happen with these contributions.
Then there's family life - karate practice, soccer practices, and softball games. My wife and I have two children and two foster children, including one four-week old girl who is new to the family. Things have been quite hectic these last few weeks which is probably why blogging has been a little haphazard.
Anyway, I thought that I would give you an update on what else is going on outside the blog. You can also take a look at my recent post up at Warscapes with Guatemala's Fight to End Impunity. It started off as a pre-election piece and then to a day after election report and then to what it is. It's gotten pulled in a number of directions since originally written and is what it is.
I'm sure I'm missing something but that's where I am at. I guess this is an update to Who is this guy writing about Central American politics?
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