Reading Time: 5 minutes“Don’t travel at night, don’t travel by car, and don’t travel out of the city,” the warning of the Department of State repeated over and over in my head as we zipped along the small highway in darkness.
A Platform on Representation, Engagement, and Community
Category: Field Notes
Study Abroad: Madagascar’s Cultural and Biological Diversity
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt had always been my professional dream to take students on a study abroad program that would be meaningful and impact their outlook on their role in the world.
Summer Learning: New Knowledge and Networks
Reading Time: 3 minutesNow that summer is approaching and summer schools for PhD candidates are likely to be cancelled, postponed, or arranged online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found myself pondering my past summer school experiences.
(Re)Visiting the (Mental) Spaces of Our Research
Reading Time: 6 minutes “I have a bit of a provocative question for Taylor.”
Oh no. Here it comes.
“Have you ever done ayahuasca?”
The Carbon Footprint of Environmental Research: A Personal Dilemma
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt just did not sit right anymore to go on all these research trips. That’s when I calculated the Carbon Footprint of my project until thus far.
A Change of Perspective: Visiting the Places of Your Research
Reading Time: 6 minutesNow that I’m pursuing a doctoral degree in the highly interdisciplinary field of environmental history, I have come to embrace new research methods.
Liquid Geographies, Uneven Worlds: How Do We Talk About Placing Water?
Reading Time: 4 minutesAs I sit in my home in Serampore, India, flanked by the river Hugli and waiting for the already delayed Monsoons to arrive and bring with it some relief, in what has been a record-breaking and extraordinarily hot summer in India, I recognize that writing about water in place-based research is a self-defeating endeavor.
The Perils of a Writer’s Profession: Overcoming Writer’s Block
Reading Time: 4 minutesIf you are a person who will spend a great deal of your professional life writing, you too are likely to become afflicted by Writer’s Block at some point.