Serendib Teaching

I’m having a quiet morning catching up with e-mail, straightening the house, watering the garden, and packing — I head out this afternoon to CA for a few days. I’m going to visit Jed tomorrow, and then go up to Berkeley to teach at their Summer Institute for K-12 Teachers, teaching South Asian speculative fiction […]

In the interests of transparency about the often obscure academic process, I’m going to post the draft of my scholarship statement here; I’ve just sent it to my chair for his feedback, so it may well be drastically revised before it actually goes out. It’s supposed to cover my work from 2015 to today. It’s

It is very hard to put everything I’ve done since 2015 in a coherent one-page scholarship statement (part of my promotion application packet). Clearly, I should do less. At least our department staff person told me 10-pt. font was allowed. Small mercies. Scholarship and service statements drafted. On to the teaching statement…

One of the tricky things about ordering plants and bulbs online is that it’s often unclear whether you’re going to get plants in good condition. Some of the nurseries that look like bargains send sad little plants in poor condition. Some places are reliable — White Flower Farm has consistently given me great plants, but

Yesterday was Glasapalooza, the end of year celebration for Global Asian Studies. I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate my colleagues on everything they’ve accomplished in growing this program. Anna Guevarra has been a powerhouse directing it! Our students have been asking for GLAS for a long, long time — this year, we

Faculty activity report due today, submitted. (There’s still the more detailed university one to do in a few weeks; this is the one for my department.) Mostly it’s a list, but they asked us to summarize at the bottom, so here’s my academic year-in-review, for your amusement. The positive part, anyway — the less positive

Teaching outfit from yesterday; this is mostly just a note to myself that I like this combo, and I should remember it — dark blue sweatshirt with gold thread in a vaguely medieval pattern, my friend’s lovely gold and dark blue flower earrings, and my current silver-blonde hair. I’m not sure how long I’m going

The process of going up for academic promotion is definitely a little nerve-wracking. Talented, skilled people get denied, all the time. It’s inevitable that imposter syndrome will rise up, asking, “Do I really deserve this? Have I earned it? Have I written enough, published enough, become well-known enough? Should I wait and hope to publish