Well this time, I would like to share with you my new experience of the fall09. I am actually in Copenhagen Denmark on another study abroad semester at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS).

How I got there was a long process yet not too complicated.  In fact, even if I cannot explain why, while still in Belize I was in search for another appropriate study abroad program. I discovered that the College of Staten Island was promoting and managing applications for the DIS program to CCIS partner schools and to CUNY schools as well.

I applied accordingly to their requirements. Although I was not yet accepted, I got a quick answer from Chris Tingue of the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. He emailed me saying that they would be pleased to work with me to help facilitate my study abroad in Denmark for a semester.  Chris also added that it -quote- “would make for quite an original year abroad- Belize to Denmark! Quite possibly never been done before, or at least not the most common sequence of programs”-end quote.

Perhaps that was what motivated me. I naturally like challenges, and from that moment I told myself that if I could have “survived” Belize, I was ready to make it anywhere. Once I was back from Belize in May, I called Chris to inquire about my application to the DIS program. For a reason or another, it happened that they have accepted my application, but I have not received notification about their decision. Chris apologized then sent me an email for confirmation. I would later receive the official acceptance letter from the College of Staten Island.

Since I joined the Degree for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies (CUNY BA) I have, both academically and personally, a plan that worked so far for me. I will not come back here with the practical issues for any CUNY students who want to go on a study abroad. Rather, I just would like to say that in life time is the only common denominator of all of our actions. Once you want something, plan ahead, anticipate, and stick on your decisions.  That is how I always proceed, and believe me, it pays back.

I arrived here in Copenhagen on Sunday August 23, 2009. My flight from New York to Helsinki Finland spent more than two hours taxiing on the tarmac at JFK before we could airborne. Consequently, I missed my correspondence flight to Copenhagen, and the transfer buses that the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) has previously arranged for its students who were arriving early that day.

Fortunately, I was not the only one in that case. After changing some dollars for “kroner” (the Danish currency), I shared a taxi ride to the welcoming center. There, I received all my housing credentials, and the DIS staff even paid the taxi that dropped me to my new place. I live now in what they call here a “Kollegium”. I have my own room, with bathroom, and a kitchenette.   Kollegiums are the Danish version of Universities’ dormitories thought they do not belong to any of their Universities. In my Kollegium, we are 39 US/ DIS students, but we live together with Danes and other European students.  In case you did not know it yet, education at any level (like many others things) is free in Denmark. Denmark being an EU member, students from all over Europe can use what they call here the ERASMUS program to come study in Denmark. It saves them a lot because otherwise they would have to pay for university back home.

The Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) is a NGO (not for profit organization) that is celebrating its 50^th years of activities this year. It is a tuition driven with a genuine concept that I can translate as being a US island in Copenhagen in the sense that all admitted students are from the US. The program is very selective as you will need to have a least a 3.2 GPA to apply, but it is so attractive that this semester only, we are 595 students. Unlike me and few others, most students are US Citizens and are attending small but very expensive Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities in the US. The classes are taught in English on DIS sites by faculty recruited within the practitioners of the different fields of study.

I enrolled the International Business Economics program with a concentration in Economics (IBE-Economics). My core course is “Economic Theories of Globalization”. In fact, “globalization is reshaping the world” and both “winners as well as victims” are voicing their concerns. I personally estimated that we ought to understand their legitimate arguments against or for the “unstoppable process”, to be able to propose viable solutions for equitable international trade and economic development. Classes like “Trade, Aid, and Political Power: the EU’s External Relations”, or “Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility”, European Case Studies in Corporate Finance”, and “Human Rights in Africa”, boast all and each another, a unique learning experience.=

As you can see, the academic standards at DIS are high, as are the demands. We are challenged both in and out of the classroom. This means ample amounts of class participation and discussion in addition to managing comprehensive exams and in-depth research papers. In order to contextualize concepts taught in class, a large portion of the education takes place outside of the classrooms. In that occasion, we conduct study tours and field studies during which we have the opportunity to visit local and multinational companies and EU institutions not only in the Copenhagen area, but also in other parts of Denmark and Europe. These study tours are an integral part of the program, and they are an excellent way to gain insights into not only academic topics but other cultures as well.

And besides, they are great fun!  Each tour has academic visits which correspond to a specific core course’s curriculum. The Economic Theories of Globalization core course (my program) will be traveling to Brussels and Frankfurt October 4 to 12. However, we have already went to meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark, we also visited the  Economic Council of the Labour Movement which is a powerful thin thank that advise the government, but most amazingly, we went for three days in the North of Denmark.

Let me recap for you what I called my “Babylon by Bus” in reference to an album of Bob Marley. On Thursday morning September 10, we embarked our nice and comfortable bus at 7:45 from  Frud plads heading toward Jutland. We first travelled to Århus to visit an art museum and get the cultural aspect of the weekend off to a start. The museum (ARoS) was wonderful, although we didn’t have quite enough time. I particularly liked the “sitting boy” that I highlight in my pictures. After a snack, we went to our first academic visit of the day. It was Suzlon. Surprisingly, Suzlon is a windmill company with Indian (India) roots. In fact, it is a good example of “reverse outsourcing”.

Denmark is known for being a leader in the green energy market, and Suzlon’s investors knew that will never be competitive unless they can buy the Research and Development capacity that already existed in Denmark. So they put enough money on the table to “head hunt” and snipe high expertise from the well established Vestas who by the way is still the leader in the sector.  Once they have done that, they bought REpower to control the distribution of gearboxes a component that is crucial to windmill. Then to decrease their costs of production, they reinforced their plants in India to get cheap labor. Today, Suzlon is the third largest windmill producer in the world.

After the visit at Suzlon, we drove to Herning and checked into our Danhostel for the evening. The next morning we were up early to travel to Bang & Olufsen, a high end electronics store in denial about its gradual economic decline. To give you an idea of the business attitude at B&O, they claim that their competition is less with Sony and Panasonic but more with Gucci, or Luis Vuitton. We did have a decent presentation to get the morning started, where they explained what it’s like to be the producer of a purely luxury good. We then had a tour of their factory that lasted about an hour too long.  After that was over, we moved on to the demos. These were cool.

Say what you want about the prospect of spending thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars on Audio/Video equipment, but their products are awesome. The first demo was that of their high end car sound system that can only be found as option in Audis, Aston Martins, and Mercedes. You have never heard music in a car sounds that amazing! I do, but it will be the last time. They then showed us a $300,000 room completely decked out with a B&O sound system, television, a 100″ projection screen, and smart-light technology. We watched some concert footage, and it was absolutely unreal. With the surround sound, you could honestly convince yourself that you were at the concert.

After the B&O visit, we travelled about an hour north to Dare Adventure Center to play paintball. I thought that it was money well spent, and we all had a great time. We played for about three hours like real armies that battle in a forest and cityscape before departing for our hostel in Aalborg. Dinner was at the local Bryghus (Brewhouse). They were kind enough to welcome two DIS groups of about 60 students at the same time, giving about 60 of us tours, and a tasting. They also served us a very large, very delicious dinner of ribs, or chicken and potatoes before unleashing us on the poor, unsuspecting town of Aalborg. If you never be with a group of US College students who decided to party like crazy with little attention of the local culture then you are lucky.

With either the advantage or the disadvantage of being the oldest and more mature one, I have learned to work around most situations to avoid getting caught into a generational or ethnic conflict whenever it was necessary. Saturday started with a tour of the Utzon Center (Jørn Utzon was the Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House). I was not particularly impressed. The architecture of the center (which was designed by him) was disappointing, and the tour was led by a cheery woman who thought that we were in a “Harry Potter” movie sequence.  I politely concentrated to listen to her for the longest hour in my life, before we got back on the bus and headed to our lunch location, a Danish Kro (a hotel in the woods). It was the most traditional Danish meal we had the entire trip, and included a lot of tasty Danish fish dishes and some leverpostej (liver patte). After the meal, we played a speed round of mini-golf –who would have thought I will ever play golf! A very quiet five hours later we rolled back into Frue Plads (where the whole journey had started) and I caught the 6A bus line to my Kollegium. In summary, it was an awesome Study Tour, and I am really excited for my trip to Belgium and Germany in October!

That’s all for now folks. Vi ses ( See you)

Staten Island, New York: August 3, 2009 – Papouli’s, (9 Hyatt Street), is pleased to present Stephen Barnett’s quarter-century culminated thesis works of, Photographic Sculpture; which are manifestations of the symbiotic relationship between realism and formalism. These works play with the three-dimensional quality of a twodimensional world. The exhibition will continue through until September 30, 2009.
This commemorative hallmark of Mr. Barnett’s work as an artist honors his perseverance in forging a new syntax into the language of visual art. These exhibited works represent his interpretation regarding, “the art of symbiosis; with nature and humanity both holding the familiarity that ultimately grounds the work,” said Mr. Barnett. “I begin with traditional Black and White film, processing, and printing of Silver-Gelatin Prints, which
are the realist elements of the relationship. I then juxtapose the mounted and framed  images with gestures of lattice-cut Poplar wood, then usually incorporate found objects, such as: rusted nails, bent wire, and hairpins.  Occasionally, I will include a touch of color to draw a line or to highlight. These, ‘added materials,’ are the formalist elements, which spark a harmonized relationship between themselves and the traditional photographed images,” said Mr. Barnett. As a result, his work reminds us of the sentiment within the symbiotic relationship between Yin and Yang.
*This project is made possible (in part) by a Staten Island Creative Communities Grant from the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island, with public funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.
For additional information and photos, contact Shannon Foreshee at (718) 981-1595.

Manhattan can make you forget there’s a big world out there. A world where crisis is not defined by a wrong order at Starbucks. Where uproars don’t start over plastic lawn chairs in Times Square.

No, out in the big world there are bigger problems to tackle. Like reducing poverty, economic development, and choices between morality and profitability.

In a country where the annual income averages $1,500 – people are talking about issues like this. Issues that matter. Such was the discussion at a business conference sponsored by the Hanoi Young Business Association (HYBA) in Hanoi, Vietnam this July.

The conference felt like a department store of topics aimed to help the burgeoning private sector of Hanoi.  Previously, State Owned Enterprises dominated the Vietnamese economy, so as they move to a free-market economic system – people are curious to learn from the American experience.

Through simultaneous translation five Americans, including myself, presented topics on marketing, social networking, corporate law and corporate social responsibility to 40 members of the HYBA. These members own dairy farms. Some started Vietnamese social networking sites to rival Facebook…and failed. Others were more successful with a site (PhunuNet.com) targeted to women, like a Vietnamese iVillage.

As a CUNY BA student, studying journalism – I’m interested in how media informs a society. As a Wall Street Journal employee working in market research- I’m interested in how that media informs purchasing decisions. As a consumer – I’m interested in how media is changing in an increasingly digitized world.

With these varied interests, I spent my presentation encouraging young business founders to think about their audience before launching into a big marketing effort. Trying to reach kids aged 4 to 8? Working mothers with growing purchase power? Or the retired sector with disposable income? Think about WHO you want to reach and then find the best media outlets to reach them?

For me, the remedy is the experience. The experience of leaving the jungles of Manhattan to speak with young professionals in Hanoi who are defining what the economy in their country will look like. Will they replace the Vietnamese star on their flag with the Nike swoosh? Will they choose print or digital to reach consumers?  Do they need to consider social responsibility as their companies growl?

I look forward to arriving at JFK soon. I eagerly await a vanilla Starbucks latté, speaking in English and getting too cold from the air conditioning. But I’m also grateful for the remedy of the Hanoi experience. To remember that I need to think about the implications of my work and the bigger issues of life, freedom, and progres instead of just running the rat race.

I’ve studied Israel/Palestine as a whole extensively before coming here, but nothing could prepare me for what I’ve seen this past week.

I came to Israel/Palestine to do research on the legal procedures for West Bank Palestinians to appeal the “Separation Barrier” (the term used for what is being built is highly controversial, and “Separation Barrier” is the most neutral term I have encountered) from their villages.

The “Barrier” is controversial for several reasons, but most important is the fact it is being built east of the Green Line. The Green Line is the term used for the border of the West Bank, a portion of land seized by Jordan in 1948, and occupied by Israel since the 1967 War. Building beyond the Green Line means establishing a presence in what the international community has deemed an illegal occupation.

According to the Israeli government, the “Separation Barrier” is simply a security measure, combating Palestinian terrorism within its borders. According to the Ministry of Defense, “The sole purpose of the Security Fence, as stated in the Israeli Government decision of July 23rd 2001, is to provide security.” The government also maintains that the Barrier is temporary, which is sort of silly because it obviously pushes Palestinians out of their homes establishing itso facto border. Plus, the Barrier is costing the Israeli government millions upon millions.

Individuals supporting the “Barrier” cite the statistic that terrorist attacks have decreased 90% since the Barrier’s first phase was completed in July 2003. This statistic is misleading, however, since the Barrier’s beginning coincided with the end of the intifada that began in 2000. Palestinians pass through the Barrier illegally regularly. So, if the Barrier is not being constructed for the sake of security…What is the point?

Consider the following quote from Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Foreign Minister and then Prime Minister.

“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can…because everything we take now will stay ours. Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” Agence France-Press, November 16, 1998.

Interesting, the Barrier did not necessarily begin as an annexation policy. It was first proposed by the left leaning Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. In fact, the settlers were outraged by the idea, because it limited their expansion into the West Bank. However, soon after the Barrier program was approved by the Defence Cabinet in July 2001, its path took on a different shape so to speak.

I planned to conduct my research on the legal aspects of the “Separation Barrier.” The Palestinians brought the matter of the Barrier to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2004 where 14 of the 15 judges ruled that the Barrier is illegal. Most scholars who focus on the legality of the Barrier are concerned with international law, but I planned to focus on Israeli domestic law. To be sure, whether Israel is in fact breaking its own laws.

It is.

So far I’ve noted the following problems in Israeli rule of law in relation to the Palestinians.

1) The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) don’t always implement the results of court rulings. There is a strong disconnect between the books and the streets, as it were.

2) The autonomy of military units typically means soldiers can do as they please with little to no accountability.

3) Israel is sponsoring settlements it has deemed illegal.

4)The Supreme Court requires the following conditions to be met in order to justify the “Barrier” being built in its route. These cases were established in Beit Sourik Village Council vs. The Government of Israel, first case of Palestinians appealing the “Barrier” to the Supreme Court.

• 1) Whether there is a “rational connection between the objective of       the separation fence (the official Israeli government name for the “Separation  Barrier”) and its established route.
• 2) Whether it is possible to attain the security objectives of the separation fence in a way that causes less injury to the local inhabitants.
• 3) “Whether the injury caused to the local inhabitants by…the construction of the separation fence stands in proper proportion to the security benefit from the security fence in its chosen route.

So far I have surveyed several sites of the “Barrier,” including:

• Nil’in
• Al Khadr
• East Jerusalem
• Ramallah
• Bethlehem
• Hebron, and South Hebron Hills

I don’t believe any of these sites have fulfilled the Supreme Court’s preconditions for building the “Barrier.” In later blogs I will explain in detail why I believe this.

5) Israel will suspend indefinitely the time for key court cases or important permits in order to justify undermining legal procedures.

I’ve met with village councils in several towns, and have recently realized that the burden of appealing to Supreme Court has been taken on by Popular Committees, which essentially civil society. They organize the cases, and even fund the lawyers. The Palestinian Authority is useless.

Okay…Now for some interesting stories…

I went to Hebron, which is one of the more interesting villages in the West Bank. It’s the largest city in the West Bank, and I’d say one of the most tense.

Hebron is made of 160,000 Palestinians, and 800 settlers, and its considered holy for both. The Jews and Muslims say the Cave of the Patriarchs is where Isaac, Rebecca, Leah, and Jacob. There is a synagogue and the Ibrahim mosque there.

You can literally peer through a window from one place of worship to the other. When I was in the mosque, I stood on my heels to see the settlers praying. There was an older Orthodox woman who looked at me from the other side. We were both there staring at each other.

Getting into Ibrahim mosque, however, proved more difficult than I’d thought. When I first arrived at the Palestinian part of the city, a man insisted on leading me to the mosque and chatting (typical Middle East). First question he asked me, of course, is whether I was Muslim, Christian or Jewish. This is really a political question. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never worshiped in your life. All he means is, can you be trusted.

When we got to the security point before entering the mosque I heard the Israeli soldiers talking about me, so I smiled.  One turned to me and asked in Hebrew if I spoke Hebrew. I answered “no,” but in Hebrew, so they didn’t believe me.

They said since I was clearly Jewish I could not enter the mosque. My Palestinian guide whipped his head around and said that “no no, she speaks Arabic, and is certainly not a Jew! Right? RIGHT??” The soldiers and the Palestinian glared at me. I got into the mosque, but everyone was confused, and no one was particularly happy with me.

The settlers in Hebron are some of the worse in the West Bank. I was walking around the town, and these girls taunted at me in Hebrew “Traitor! Go back to Aushvitz!”

There was also a mishap…

So, evidently the Israelis never stamped my passport, or a second piece of paper for that matter. I was detained at the airport due to my suspicious past travel (Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela, etc) and I guess the soldiers forgot to give me a visa during the frenzy.

I actually had no idea until I was at the Qalandia checkpoint coming back from a small village in the south. The soldier wouldn’t let me through, and wouldn’t detain me. Now, detaining me would be inconvenient, sure, and uncomfortable. But NOT detaining me is worse, because it means that I simply can’t cross…at all. It means they refuse to acknowledge me, and therefore are not bound to ANY sort of protocol.

I managed to get through, but will have to go through the bureaucracy of the Interior Ministry in order to get my visa cleared up.

So much has happened just in this last week. I’m trying to process it all, and get in touch with lawyers of the appeals cases, and more NGOs. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has produced really useful maps of the Separation Barrier and various checkpoints. I’m just getting started…

I will keep you updated.

Toba

Today marks the beginning of the Holocaust Era Assets conference being held in Prague and organized by the organization I’m working with. It is the last large event that will be held during the Czech Republics tenure as president of the EU. It also marked an extraordinarily interesting day for me.
I had lunch today with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, Ivan Klima, another wonderful author and holocaust survivor, Susan Sher, Michele Obama’s chief of staff, and Ambassador Stewart Eisenstadt. Needless to say the company was not my normal Friday crowd, and it was such an honor to meet these people, especially Elie Wiesel.
I would like to give a couple of highlights from this lunch and from the opening ceremonies of the Holocaust Era Assets Conference, which can be watched in full.
http://www.holocausteraassets.eu/en/video-gallery/opening-ceremony/
Ivan Klima went to the prison camps when he was 13 years old. He was alone, separated from his parents. He wrote in one of his books that he remembered the first thing he was concerned about was missing school. He didn’t know how he was going to catch up on all the work he was missing…
Soon after his arrival he was shoved in a room with many other Jews, they were packed in, it was freezing. They all were gathered to listen to a performance of an Opera (the name of it escapes me, it has become a kind of national opera here in the Czech Republic). The conductor played the piano and conducted, the singers were all wrapped in whatever coats they could find, as it was freezing, and they would get up and stand on boxes when it was their time to perform. He wrote that many people cried during this performance, he said that he felt like crying…
Many years later, when he first went to the national Opera house here in Prague and watched the same Opera on stage with lavish costumes and in full regal; he recalled that it had not one ounce of the feeling and passion that it did for him crammed into a tiny, freezing room in a prison camp…

Elie Wiesel… He looked remarkably well for an 80 year old man. He was friendly and human. He gave one of the Holocaust Era Assets Conference’s opening speeches along with two others that are of note but paled next to him. He was riveting.
He Began be recalling some personal memories. He read from a ledger that was kept by the Hungarian army. A lieutenant and policemen went into the countryside town to take the possessions of an old woman. She possessed, I’ll quote him directly here, “A one pengo, which is almost nothing in Hungarian, two small coins, three smaller coins, and two pieces of a 21 centimeter tall solid brass candle sticks, the Shabbat candle sticks, and that’s all she possessed. And they took it, and they recorded dutifully. Then they came three houses to her right, and they found from the whole family, 431 pengo’s, the entire cash that the family possessed, a camera, a fountain pen, one pair of seemingly gold earrings, a golden ring, a silver ring, three ancient silver coins, a sewing machine, and three batteries for flashlights. The old lady was my grandmother, and the family was mine.”
He was a moving speaker, passionate with moments of poetry. Again it was my honor to meet him. Two other quotes and I’ll leave it.
He said, “A very great Hasidic master said once, I think it was the (name?)… he said, “If you want to find a spark, look for it in the ashes.“”
and, ” I believe he or she who listens to a witness becomes a witness. .”
It was a beautiful and interesting day today. I am blessed. We are.

I am sitting now in the office of Forum 2000, an International organization that holds summits regarding different issues.  Check out their website (www.forum2000.cz)to better understand the scope of their 12 year history filled with illustrious names discussing relevant topics.

I sit here with a list of invites and attendees to a conference that I have been given creative liscence in coordinating.  This list includes; His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa, F. W. de Klerk, Shirin Ebadi, Nelson Mandela, Sergio Pinheiro, Christiane Ammanpour, George Soros, Kofi Annan and many others. Needless to say I am humbled by the opportunity to help set the agenda for their discussion, to correspond with and meet these people who I so greatly admire.

Prague is amazing as well. I am living on a hill top about a five minute walk from Prague Castle. The hill is covered in cobble-stone streets and long winding stone stairways that cascade down the hillside like streams after the spring thaw. My window looks out over the spires of a very old monastery whose bells remind you of its presence every hour (which I quite like) and ring in joyous celebration at 5pm (the usual end of a work day, but due to the rigor of the conferences that are being put on by this small office I usually don’t leave until about 8).

Prague is literally full of buildings that are worth photographing. Most of them have a mysterious smooth exterior with dull, soft, pastel colors and intricate moldings. There are so many things worth seeing here that I walked through a Baroque Museum that was beautiful and almost empty, I suspect only because it is one of 1000 places to admire.

I have been placed in a spectacular location with an incredible opportunity. I am on the edge of my seat to see it unfold before me.

My Journey to Prague Photos

I studied with Martin Robinson (telly from Sesame street, amongst other characters!)  along with 11 other ridiculously talented puppeteers. When I first arrived and started the workshops, I had a huge confidence blow because I really had very little ‘real puppetry’ experience… however, the workshop was all about process and play, and we all developed some fantastic pieces of puppet theater. One of the most beautiful things I discovered at the conference was that puppetry is all about communication, both the process and the product of puppetry is pushed and pulled by the act of communicating. Which, ironically, matches my view that ultimately, artistic work and any study of real value, is about communication as well.

One of my favorite anecdotes is this:

12 adults, one room, Marty yelling
“left left, right right, left left, right right”
our arms going
“left left, right right, left left, right right”
our hands with socks singing
“A,B,C,D,E,F,G….”

It was just mindblowing, I learned So much, made great contacts, did some great work with some great people, gained a family, and am now picking up all that I have learned and leading puppetry workshops for kids in boston, new york, and portland this summer.

I am also volunteering at Tufts Medical Center here in Boston (where I am currently staying) working with troubled kids and using puppetry and the importance of play to communicate and help them communicate.

Puppet Anarchy and Beyond! Photos

I have had the great fortune and opportunity to serve as a research assistant this summer to my faculty mentor, Professor Edwin G. Burrows of Brooklyn College. My area of concentration is eighteenth-century American history, and we are looking into the effects of the American Revolution on small communities and civilian life, in general. In the early 1970s, leading up to the Bicentennial and as the “new social history” gripped the scholarly community, a surge of community studies appeared, some scholarly, many not. Yet, curiously, the majority of these studies focused on community life in the colonial period and their span of coverage almost invariably ended around the beginning of the War for Independence.

In the last fifty years, historiography regarding eighteenth-century America has progressed in two seemingly dichotomous strands. Studies of the pre-war or colonial period have tended to focus on social aspects, especially since the early 1970s; at the same time,  post- independence studies have cast their gaze on politics and, most prominently, ideology. The eminent Early Americanist, Pauline Maier, referred to this as one of early American history’s primary “disjunctions” in a “state of the field” lecture she gave at the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2004.

My task, in these early stages, is to create a bibliography that identifies the relevant, yet, highly fragmentary literature available on post-colonial communities. The goal is to find enough secondary sources on a few specific communities that, when coupled with primary sources such as newspapers, broadsides, and personal diaries, would allow one to see whether the Revolution had any profound effects on smaller communities outside of the urban centers, and, if so, what those effects were. In the beginning, it mostly entails scouring online databases, the Library of Congress catalog, book citations, and the like. I concede to some this may not sound like a fun way to spend one’s summer. To an historian and Early Americanist-in-training, however, it is a priceless and exciting opportunity to see and engage in the process of historical inquiry, especially with Professor Burrows, to whom I am extremely grateful for all his generosity of time and effort.

My New York agency Rocket Garage has set me up to work here in Tokyo with Loop Management.

I went to a casting already – fresh off the plane
more soon!!

xx
larissa

First Days in Tokyo Photo Album