The Rhetorist

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Well, the time has come for me to return to Europe. As mentioned in a previous post I had applied to a workshop in Switzerland, and my abstract was accepted for presentation. Very exciting, a week-long summer school at the University of Basel in my specialty area of media research: ICONS!!! The program looks fantastic and the university is being very generous, so this is a Godsend.

And, while I was slightly distressed at the Society for Terrorist Research holding their conference after my classes started this year, rendering me incapable of joining them for a third year in a row, their timing actually fit in beautifully with the Swiss workshop, following just a few days after but in Northern Ireland. And they also accepted my research for presentation which is just terrific, as I met with these psychologists last year in Zakopane Poland and the year before in Madrid. It’s a great network.

So my two personal academic development opportunities are back to back international events instead of domestic this year, though I do have a weekend in late October set aside for a conference in DC. Actually I’m a slow starter early on in a semester, like to gradually ‘set the stage’ for my students with discussion and critical thinking exercises, so they aren’t going to miss much, but still, they are in good hands with a course lecturer while I’m away.

Looking forward to seeing Tilman again in Zurich, he is in a post or two on this blog, his pic is up. And hoping to see my friend Bart in Brussels for the weekend before I need to be in Belfast. Expect some pix from Rob Pappas’ Nikon D200 posted here under the countries on the left for Europe/Asia 09 once I build those pages and take some pix .

Peace, out. S