Eaten by Tapirs

In which I return to the world's most neglected blog...

Wow, it's been a while. I make no apologies, however: school's been sucking up my brain and little of particular interest has happened in the last three months other than a procession of classes of wildly varying quality. Watched a bunch of movies, went to a handful of birthday parties (including my own) and toiled away on my thesis. Not exactly the stuff bloggy dreams are made of.

Let's see... classes...

Understanding Terrorism: The name says it all. Taught by two profs: one for Islamic terrorism, and one for everything else. The "everything else" prof presented a pleasantly comprehensive picture of terrorism the world over, but the Islamist terror guru really shied away from answering my questions, preferring instead to give a general history of the Middle East from the days of Isaac and Ishmael. A minor disappointment.

Middle Eastern Studies: Pretty much what you'd expect, but taught by a trio of profs (Iraqi/American/French) with some impressive experience between them. All of them have been to Iraq lately - one even served there with the US military... just the kind of perspective you can't really get from the news. Well worthwhile.

Urban Violence: Utter drivel in which our prof explained in droning detail that there was some sort of a "Cold War" between so-called "Superpowers" during the latter half of the last century.

Conflict Resolution and Mediation: Downright nifty class on negotiation and makin' folks get along, by a visiting professor from Israel/Turkey. Good times - highly inventive, lots of different techniques covered, and oodles of video clips from the Emperor's New Groove. Should have done this at the beginning of the year.

More news to follow!

posted by Paul @ 10:05 PM