by Yesterday I spoke at an amazing program titled, Mistakes Were Made, produced by Laine Nooney. Laine, you did a great job, and can I just say that the speakers you chose were amazing. Every one of them was brilliant, and if they weren’t such lovely people I would have been terrified of them.
The pictures below were taken by the great writer and illustrator, Vivian Swift. Thank you very much, Vivian!
On the far left is my co-speaker, Joy Rankin, @JoyMLRankin, who researches American history, the history of science and technology, and the history of gender. And next to her is the moderator of the event Finn Burton, assistant professor at NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Media Culture, and Communication.
And that’s me, doing my best not to show my nervousness. I stumbled over my words from time to time, but what are you going to do?
You know, I don’t comment a lot, but I just wanted to let you know I like to pop in every week, just to see how you are doing. I like your attitude. And even if you are afraid of something, you still do it if it means enough to you (like speaking in public.)
Have you ever heard of this program?
https://www.cssd.ac.uk/course/applied-theatre-ma
My sister will be doing that this fall. I am so excited for her.
In the meantime, my husband is biking through the southern states:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/RAA
And I am here, marking exams and writing my thesis. So, carry on!
I haven’t heard of that program but it sounds like the coolest thing in the world.
AND what your husband is doing it tied for the coolest thing in the world.
I envy them both!!
And you, in grad school which is so much fun. Actually when I said something about grad school being fun at my recent talk, people laughed like I was making a joke, but for me grad school did turn out to be a lot of fun. How is it for you?
I love being in school, in any incarnation. I even loved law school. I would like to teach something like property law at law school, because it is often poorly taught and yet it can be so interesting. My plan a couple of years ago was to get back to school and then stay in academia in some fashion forever. I already have a masters degree but there was no thesis. This time (another masters) I am writing a thesis (which I am avoiding doing right now! haha.) Grad school IS fun! You get to learn about things in a whole different way from undergrad. More depth, more interest, more your own ideas. I suppose some depends on the school. The philosophy department at Carleton is a great environment. I hope to choose a good school for my PhD (for the fall of 2016 now.)
My sister is now in her 50s and she has never gone to university. But the idea of ‘applied theatre’ suits her and I am sure she will have a great time. Plus, you know, London for a year! In fact, I did London for a year when I went to LSE for my LLM. It was swell.
I think grad school may not be so much fun for those who are there by default, or who are struggling with ‘issues’. But I chose to go and I chose to study philosophy, so I am as happy as a clam.
I was at that NYU program and your talk was the crowd-pleaser. What a treat it must have been, for students who have no memory of a modem, to see and hear from a real pioneer innovator, and creator of this thing they are studying, called “Computer History”. What a story you had to tell, and you did so with humor and insight.
I don’t remember any verbal stumbling!
Awww, you are such a nice and generous person. I really appreciated your attending and loved having a chance to visit over lunch.