I greet you from the final throws of Revision Week(s)!
The essays have been submitted, and I await one more grade with bated breath. I apologize for my dropping the ball on reporting more of the RAI conference that took place three weeks ago on the St Andrews campus, but the one post took a great amount of kapow to make up for it. The remainder of the conference was less rage-inducing informative but a great experience nonetheless. There's nothing like a great selection of veteran anthropologists telling their best field stories and giving advice. This bit was actually my favorite portion of the entire event; the lecturer originally intended to fill the evening slot of the first day–Arjun Appadurai–had taken ill at the last minute. In order to fill the slot, the organizers asked that some St Andrews lecturers, PhD students, and some visiting lecturers from other universities share their stories for the two hour block. During that time, I learned much about the confusions, confrontations, and contradictions that an anthropologist can encounter in the field. I laughed hard and thought hard; there really is nothing better than that, is there?
In addition to that time slot, Peter and I attended the second day's undergrad call for papers, which was at times very interesting and at times very dull. Some very interesting and original topics were explored, alongside tired and strained presentations that really failed to say anything. I was elated to hear my friend Francesca's presentation on her senior thesis, which explored the ways women asserted their autonomy on a small island off of Italy through entrepreneurship and art. We also sat for a heart-wrenching ethnographic film and a lecture from the acclaimed social anthropologist Marilyn Strathern, who did groundbreaking research among women in Papua New Guinea. After the lecture was over, I spotted my Anthropology of Consciousness lecturer from last semester, Professor Christina Toren, and I made a point to (somewhat awkwardly) tell her how much her class impacted the way I think about anthropology and really the way I think in general. After I got past the awkward self-introduction, things went a lot more smoothly. I'll probably never see her again, but she is definitely someone I greatly admire as a person, a teacher, and an anthropologist.
So here I am. Peter left, and I went to visit him in Oxford this past week for the last time. The next time we see each other will be in 6 weeks back in Los Angeles. For myself, I return on May 24th. It's only two weeks away, but it feels like it should be an eternity like the rest of my time here has been. A very short eternity, though, I will admit. As for what I'm doing when I return to sunny California, I'm still waiting on responses from internships I have applied for. I am planning to apply for more in the public service and public radio sector, but I do feel anxious that somehow all of these opportunities will leave me high and dry. I would really like to be able to earn money over the summer, and the pressure to get that figured out is a tad crippling, even though the worst case scenario is that I end up working a minimum wage, entrance-level job and volunteering at KPCC instead of working there or somewhere like it. Speaking of volunteering, I am also planning on sending an application to the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. So really, things aren't as hanging-by-the-thread as they feel.
For now, I must return to reading an article about colonialism in West Africa. More on this and other things to come soon.
Have a brilliant day!
