Academic book review: Paying for college. Athletic Scholarship Info

This book laguished unopened on my Kindle for a long time because I was almost sure that the information deals exclusively with management of college payment and other financial information that does not interest me too much. After all, I am living in Germany where the high education is free and I do not have too many plans to going back to university either, at least not in the next 6 months. 

I was wrong though. It has very good tips about how to organise your entry to college, step-by-step, taking care of the smallest details such as time management, establishing special learning routines, organizing the extra-curricular activities. Written in an accessible language, it offers directions for going straight on the path to making good academic choices, setting up motivational tools and writing good application letters. 

The information is at the level of 2012 and unfortunally it does not have relevant links or extra materials for the reader, but regardless of your academic level, geographical location or the year when you start reading it, there is relevant information available. My favourite ones are: how to identify and fight procrastination and the advice to be in touch with a tutor or teacher seeking for academic guidance. 

A four-star kind of book, strongly recommended and easy to read - less than one hour if you are a speedy reader as me. 

Pro and cons of academic blogging

In 2016, there are problably few and few academics wondering what blogging is and why we, as educated people, we should use this medium to share our ideas to the world. Many of my academic friends already experienced at least once the bloggosphere, either as guest writers or as owners of their blog.

However, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and confusions regarding the advantages of blogging for academics and I am here to share some of them.

Let's start with the cons:

- Not every kind of scientifical domain can be easily blogged about. For instance, as a mathematician discovering new formulas, writing a blog post about this, will most probably not reach more than the usual people that are already familiar with your very niche activities. So, why to waste time setting up a couple of sentences about?

- Talking about time...one of the big arguments against blogging among academics is the waste of time. In a highly competitive academic world, where publish or die is still the motto, you better use every dime of time for forwarding your research, apply for academic conferences. If you also have a family, you practically do not have any extra time for scribbling.

- The blog post does not equal the academic article and will not (yet) be considered a reference for applying for a serious permanent academic position.

- It increases the risk of being caught in various commercial traps, especially when various companies or institutions are keen to offer sponsorship and thus, diminish the credibility and independence of the academic individual and research.

- It has the temptation of easy journalism, and may affect the hard polished academic skills which includes precaution and long preparation of the texts as well as cross-referencing.

The advantages are equally noteworthy:

- It offers visibility to ideas developed by academics, by offering a medium to share and discuss. This is particularly available for academics in the field of human sciences and politics. 

- It makes academic work transparent and relevant to the public and take back the intellectuals in the agora as parts of the public discussions. 

- It help spreading knowledge in parts of the world without a proper educational network. Wherever they are, people can read and get in touch with new ideas.

- Outside the rigid institutional settings, academics are free to express opinions not only about their daily work but on issues of public interest.

- It offers academics important opportunities to collaborate and share ideas. It also offers the chance to find people sharing common interests and researching similar topics, wherever they are. 

Probably there are many more things to outline about academic blogging and I will keep writing about this in next posts. As for me, I will always keep telling how grateful I am for being alive these times, with tremendous learning opportunities, many of them for free. 

Academic book review: Buying a bride, by Marcia A.Zug

A couple of months ago, while looking to download some titles for my Kindle I discovered some indie series called Mail-Order Brides. I realized what the topic might be about, but the images of the cover too convinced me to do not overcharge my e-book device with some non-sense. 

When I started to read this book I assumed that it covers the usual angles on this topic, mainly the human trafficking and women abuse, but surprinsingly, there is a completely new perspective opened. Although there are cases of abuses, the mail-bride system can be, in fact, an opportunity for many women to improve their life. Far from portraying images of desperate women, ready to sell themselves from a visa, the author covers various historical and geographical cases when mail-brides were in fact the engine of change. 

Definition

The cases extensively studied are Canada, and most specifically the US, starting with the 17th century.Although the author acknowledges the problematic choice of wording, she decides to keep the "mail-order" term, but for offering a critique and challenge the assumption of exploitation of the women using this system to acquire a husband. It is defined "as a marriage resulting from some form of advertisment or other public request, soliciting women to enter into a marriage with previously unknown man and typically travel a significant distance to complete this (...)". The definition excludes in any case the idea of women getting married against their own will. Mail-order husbands were also possible but at a smaller extent and not studied by the book.

History

The phenomenon started in the 17th century, mostly part of larger state plans to expand towards previously unconquered lands, both in Canada and the US. The mail-brides were thus part of a national policy aimed to dublicate the national family models. The relationships with Native Indian women were not encouraged and in some cases forbidden by law, being considered as "a danger for European men to abandon their civility". The rights of women moving to colonies were more generous compared to the Eastern coast of the US or Europe, they being offered equal wages with their male counterparts, the right to trade, to sue and to be sued, to sell property etc. The right to vote was offered first to women from the Western part of the US, long before those from the Eastern coast benefited of the same advantages. An interesting assumption of the book is that in fact the mail-bride systems contributed to the advancement of women's rights. 

Another merit of the book is to offer a transversal perspective into the genesis of the elites and social classes in different American states. 

In both the US and Canadian cases, 'the complex forces of feminism, imperialism, capitalism and racism created a situation in which divergent interests aligned to produce support for a variety of large-scale marital immigration programs'.

The medium

A special section is dedicated to analysing the ads aimed to attract potential suitors, after the Civil War when the state policies were less predominant in encouraging this kind of immigration. By the fact that the women authored or authorized the content of the ads, they were given more control over their marital process. Actually, this kind of process through which a marriage takes place is distinguished from the arranged marriages, which may explain why, for instance, India was not included as part of the cases analysed by the author.

In parallel with the spread of the phenomenon and the increase of women coming not only from Western Europe, but also from East and South Europe, or as far as from China or Japan, the negative perception of the mail-brides developped. It was reflected not only through the negative media reports, but in the prohibitive legislation aimed to discourage the process. 

Now and then, there will always be men interested to marry overseas and women ready to leave a life of poverty and without hope. "Today's mail-order brides and grooms are not a throwback to an earlier, unenlightened time. Instead, like the most of us, they are simply men and women who believe marriage will improve their lives, and we should support this choice".

Overview

The book is seriously documented, based on a detailed bibliography which covers historical, literary, media, anthropological and legal sources. It covers well and clearly couple of good centuries and outlines new academic perspectives. 

What I did miss was a more quantitative focus. The author herself reckon that statistics in the success rate of mail-order mariages are hard to verify, but more data and comparisons between different periods of time and the racial profile of women might have help to counter stereotypes about the issue. 

A recommended read for both academics and journalist covering immigration related topics.

Disclaimer: I was offered the book for review part of the NetGalley.com network, but the opinions are, as always, my own. 

Back in the academic blogging business

Almost two years without a blog post, and not too many academic achievements...True is that there were a lot of challenging taking place and the academic perspectives and experiences helped in finding solutions. Although academic writing and the improvement of the academic CV was relatively slowing down, or put on hold for a couple of months, it was just a provisory situation.

Right now, fulll of energy and ideas for at least one book until the end of the year, I am back and ready to use the blog as a tool for sharing ideas about books, academic life and academic travels and history. I am preparing a couple of reviews of interesting academic books that caught my attention recently and the blog will be updated at least once the week. 

With plans to upgrade my academic CV and some long time projects for the medium term. 

All being said for now, I am back preparing my next post!

Keep in touch with good academic news! Soon, very soon!

University life in Halle an der Saale

As in the case of good restaurant, there are many good universities in Germany with a long intellectual tradition situated in relatively small towns. This geographic reality of the intellectual local map is probably due to the fact of the former autonomous structure of the relatively new German state. What is now considered 'small' at the scale of the Federal Republic used to play an important administrative role at the overall scale of the state administration. This is the case with Halle (an der Saale) with a 4-century long academic tradition. 

Halle can market itself not only as an important academic and intellectual standpoint in the Eastern part of the German lands, but also as the place where the first student of African origin attended a high-education institution in Europe. The presence of Anton Wilhelm Amo, a teacher and philosopher of African origin, that grew up in Germany, is outlined by an interesting statuary group. Amo was originally from Ghana and was brought to Europe at an early age and adopted by Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuetel. He started his education in 1727 at the Law School Salle, and continued further with studies in the field of logic, metaphysics, physiology, medicine, astronomy and history. Fluent in six languages - French, English, Dutch, German, Greek and Latin - he also studied at Jena or Wittenberg University, at the latter for his PhD in philosophy that he received in 1734. 

The main university area of is situated close to the Operahaus and includes several buildings designed according to the principles of classical architecture, many of them freshly restored in the last years. Additional modern construction were successfully integrated into the older complex. 

The current university is made up of two traditional centers of high-education: the university of Halle and the one from Wittenberg. Mostly focused on sciences, law and humanist knowledge, it contributed to the development of various technologies and studies, but also to the creation of interesting places that are integrated into the tourist local recommendations, such as the Botanical Gardens. 

 

I visited Martin Luther University premises during the day of rest of 1st of May, and everything was quiet around. The vicinity to the old historical city center inspires to meditation and introspection, a feeling created by the big green spaces with statues of various intellectual representations. 

The University from Halle is considered among the first to introduce the 'modern university model' in Europe, where the students are encouraged to critically address their sources rather than to reproduce sheepishly the words and insights of their teachers. Nowadays, the main faculties are: Theology, Law and Economics, Medicine, Philosophy and Natural Sciences.

Another intellectual reference for Halle an der Saale is Academia Leopoldina, labelled as the oldest and most respected German Academy of Sciences nowadays. Viewed from the outside, it looks as a serious castle where eventually important decisions are taken, and this impression was not necessarily influenced by the vicinity with the Moritzburg Castle who's situated just on the opposite side of the street. It was initially created in 1652, in Schweinfurt and counted more than 7,000 members since its foundation. Among the most prestigious representatives, we can mention: Goethe, Marie Curie, Max Planck, Albert Einstein or Charles Darwin. 

Academic tradition in Leipzig: Visiting the university

One of the places are always on my bucket list when on the road are the university or academic centers. I am interested not only in the academic life, but also in the architecture and the ways in which intellectual histories were inserted as part of the local branding. Recently, I visited the 600-year old Leipzig University.

I noticed the interesting combination of styles and volumes during my first visit around Augustusplatz, the center of the city, but only this time was able to find out more about the history. This part of the building that looks as a religious space used to be Paulinenkirche, destroyed in 1968 by the communists and reintroduced in the building according to the modern plans.  

On the other end of the book-shaped building complex, the 142.5-meter building created in 1978 as part of the socialist Karl-Marx University that nowadays is used by private owners.

The main lobby, near the main entrance has a main office where one can be directed for various information, but also a computer corner. Old and new history are combined: a submarine construction behind classical sculptures are meant to create the bridge between the new and old scholars. The Leipzig university was created in 1409, and in 1544, the elector Moritz of Sachsen allowed to the university the space of the Collegium Paulinum. Following the Reform, the church and monastery were donated to the university. 

In 1830, there were started the constructions for a new building, under the coordination of Albert Geutebruck, inaugurated 5 years later. In 1870, the university was already out of capacity, and a new university complex was erected by Arwed Rossbach, composed by the following wings: Albertinum, Johanneum and Paulinum. 

The intellectual model was the University of Prague, from where many if the teachers were originally from. They moved to the German lands because of the religious persecutions following the Husite wars. Since its creation, the research continued non-stop. During the war, the university was partially destroyed, and was reopened on 5 February 1946 under Soviet control. The new socialist complex from 1978 was added with new buildings after the reunification of Germany. On 24 March 2004, a jury selected the project of the Rotterdam architectural office Erik van Egeraat Associated Architects. 

The interior yard is a place of meeting, learning, socializing and meditation. The buildings around are hosting a library, a bank office, the Mensa/canteen, a newly opened breakfast bistro and the entrance to the library. The library was created in 1543 and is considered one of the oldest of this kind in Germany. It has 5 million volumes and around 7,700 periodicals.

The students tried to create their own identity marks sending their art and social messages. Due to space restrictions, several locations of the university are hosted in different areas in town. The university degrees cover both graduate and post-graduate studies. In the Augustusplatz building, the main specialities are: Media, Mechanical and Engineering, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Business Administration, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Social Sciences. 

The university building was awarded several architectural awards, but this is only a part of the prestige of this university center. The university is ranked second in Germany and 20th in Europe. Regularly, over 29,000 students, not few of them fro outside Germany, are registered for classes. 

There is a long list of personalities who studied here. Among them: Tycho Brache, Leibniz, Goethe, Richard Wagner and the current German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

As expected in an university space, there are frequent social and political messages displayed. Leipzig is also called the 'Heldenstadt'/'The city of heroes', especially due to the contribution to finally shaking the communist system during the peaceful revolution that took place in the city more than two decades ago. 

As I visited the university on the occasion of the Book Fair, there were a lot of announcements and events related to this huge bookish gathering, including this tree of books in the interior yard.

 

The memory is always present. Fragments of original frescoes depicting historical scenes are featured in the Auditorium.

The dynamic life of the university sends a message about the newly recovered economic strength of the city itself. After the fall of communism, the city succeeded to adapt its old trade traditions to the challenges of the market economy. Amazon and DHL decided to establish here their main operational headquarters in Europe, and the city is boosting of life, bikes and intense cultural activities. With 21 museums, 6 public libraries and many concert and theatre venues, Leipzig is developing successfully its new academic identity. 

Academic travels: Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig

As I continued my travels last weeks around Germany, I had a short stop to Leipzig (more about the university in a separate post), I also passed around the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. The academic network in Germany is decentralized and each 'Land' has its own academia. 

Initially created as the Royal Saxonian Society for the Sciences and Humanities in 1846, the academy has over 200 members. In order to be elected, they should be located in Saxony, Saxony Anhalt or Thuringia. The majority of the projects developed by the Academy are mostly focused on humanities, but there are also some about natural sciences and engineering. 

One of the main activity is the compilation of scientific dictionaries and an impressive collection was started with the creation of the Academy. Another strong point of interest are the history and regional studies, especially Saxony history and medieval legal history. Short term projects were recently introduced as well, covering the impact of technology on daily life and various technical-related issues about the Internet challenges for the academic world.