Posted in academic on June 25, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Muse has some poignant musings about the disadvantages of an elite education. I am often struck by the self-absorption of even many good, ethical, spiritual, and thoughtful students/graduates of elite schools and universities. There is an air of entitlement, which Deresiewicz discusses in the “The American Scholar” article, entitlement which makes many individuals solidly immersed [...]
Posted in academic on June 19, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Because it’s Thursday, let us take a moment to remember how there was life before:
Credit cards. Yes, indeed. In 1989, when Uncle Mushtaq, our neighbor in Lahore in the PCSIR housing campus, had his total salary of Rs. 5000 picked from his pocket one month, that meant that that month was going to be [...]
Posted in academic on June 15, 2008 | 6 Comments »
One night in the summer of 2005, I lay on my bed, angry and helpless about what appeared to be completely immovable writer’s block. I could see no light at the end of the tunnel; I felt like I’d never be done. The dissertation would never be finished. I’d never have the PhD. I’d never [...]
Posted in USA, academic, children, gender, political, social science on May 26, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Excuse the sensationalistic title but it’s been a while since I blogged and I might as well be punchy for a change. I just moved to Oklahoma to start a tenure-track position, and am exploring the new environment, the new culture, and a new house. The move and adjustment have given me very little time. [...]
Posted in academic, children on March 7, 2008 | 8 Comments »
My niece immigrated to join her mother in Australia while in middle school. Every time I speak to her on the phone, she tells me how easy her curricular material is. She is at the top of her class in math and science. It’s so easy it verges on boring. “Because,” she says, “it’s all [...]
Posted in academic, fun on February 24, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Tis the season for academic interviews! From my personal experience, allow me to offer a bit of advice on what to do when invited for a campus interview:
Read carefully your brand new “free” business cards ordered off the internet. Do so especially before you hand one to a head of department and to all the [...]
Posted in Islam, academic on December 12, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Deadline coming up!
The 3rd Muslim Studies Conference
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
Conference Title: “Muslims, Race and the Public Sphere”
Conference Dates: April 3-5, 2008
Abstract Submission Deadline: December 15, 2007 (in three days!)
Keynote Speakers: Mahmood Mamdani, Geneive Abdo, and Howard Winant
More details.
Posted in academic on November 26, 2007 | 9 Comments »
I attended the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (Canada) annual conference this past weekend.
The conference was held at Wilfred Laurier University. It was quite a trip to stay first in snow-White Waterloo, and then to hurry through the burst of colour that is Toronto.
At a roundtable keynote, I spoke on Muslim women’s participation in the [...]
Posted in Pakistan, academic, political, religion on November 21, 2007 | 5 Comments »
This unpublished article was written by Samia Altaf, a Pakistani scholar and physician and a Woodrow Wilson fellow. A friend in Pakistan forwarded it to me, and it can be read at her blog, The South Asian Idea.
Helping Pakistan
by Samia Altaf
Pakistan, labeled the most dangerous country in the world, with loose nukes and angry jihadis, [...]
Posted in Islam, academic on November 15, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Sociology of Islam and Muslims Societies
Location: Virginia, United States
Call for Papers Date: 2007-12-12
The 2008 Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society
http://www.southernsociologicalsociety.org/
April 9-12, 2008, Richmond, Virginia - USA
Invitation for Panel Papers
Dear all,
At the Southern Sociological Society annual meeting last year there were five panels with 20 presentations on Islam, the Sociology of Islam, and Islamist Movements. [...]
