Between books and bikes

the dissertation has been submitted and a defence has been scheduled. please send good vibes.

Got a postdoc, might actually have to finish this dissertation

committee has given me both the green light to apply for postdocs and jobs as well as a date to have the first complete draft in by. the times, they are a-changin'.

Spent the afternoon drinking beer and participating in a monthly reading group where today's readings were on 'what is matter'. Pretty sure my drinking was noticed by senior academics in the field but life is short and this beer needed to be had so I could sit through two hours of why the subject-object dichotomy is stupid. Went for a walk after, and ran into a deobandi group proselytizing in Coimbra. Hung around the group, spoke in Arabic, confused the shit out of everyone when they asked where I was from and I said Canada, all the while holding on to a beer, walked back home. A wonderful Friday, all in all. Now to wake up and aim to write 300 words on topology and the study of Urdu Shi'a oratory.

beer is very cheap in coimbra. so much so that i consider it a crime not to down a couple with lunch, and a couple more with dinner. along with the roughly 10km of walking every day, and with roughly 500 words being written at some point before dinner, this has been a good start. here's to keeping this going for two more months!

just heard the ice cream truck outside my apartment, must be the start of summer in toronto

it's just after five on friday, and i'm a litre of beer in. this is what spring is for, right?

i'll be on the move again. came back to toronto last spring for one last year of teaching, taught four courses, and now packing my bags. in the short term, it's chicago, paris, coimbra, and then, starting august, figure out a place where i can hole up, submit job apps, submit postdoc apps, finish dissertation, and see what's up. in the long run, who knows?

Last day of class! A student gifted me a painting she did of a bicycle, bless her. It's going straight up in my living room

just wrapped up classes for the week, drained. feel like burying my head in someone's lap. One more week and it'll be over. God bless the two students who read and have thoughts to share. Gonna give them bonus marks to make sure both are getting an A+

In March 2019 I was fanboying in the audience at a roundtable launch of a prominent academic's recent book, and tomorrow I get to moderate a similar roundtable book launch for a prominent scholar in my field. The goal is to not say anything stupid.

three more lectures to prep for the 3rd year course, and four more seminars to lead for the 4th year course, and then i can hunker down and finish this dissertation. i have never been more excited to write.

reading week is over, and my only motivation for preparing the monday lecture is that the topic is 'subaltern' and obvs i'm gonna begin by asking students to think about the term bougie (them work my way from marx to lenin to gramsci, before jumping on to the subaltern studies folks). also, only five more weeks of teaching (i cannot wait to be done, and to return to writing this summer)!