Royce Francis shared a series on writing this spring, drawing on his expertise as a professor of engineering who also teaches engineers to write. We had a great response to that series, and we’re happy to welcome Royce back to the blog for a new series on immigration, inspired by an InterVarsity Faculty Conference. Image: Ruth and Boaz, one of the biblical stories of welcoming the stranger. [Read more…] about Welcoming the Stranger—My Half Marathon Journey In Solidarity With World Relief
exercise
Movement and the Graduate Life (Scholar’s Compass)
People say the combination of physics Ph.D. student and ballroom is an odd one. They say that it’s unusual to find the artist and the scientist in one body. But Robbie Fraleigh manages it without any conflict. He says that he doesn’t know how to do grad school without the dancing. [Read more…] about Movement and the Graduate Life (Scholar’s Compass)
The Samurai Number (Scholar’s Compass)
70-20-10
When you look up this number online, you’ll find it associated with a business model and manager structures. But I first heard this ratio from a dancer.
Jerome Subey had learned from his Karate Master in the years before he had changed tracks and become a dancer. We were lingering over a late breakfast and I was asking the table how dance had changed their lives. [Read more…] about The Samurai Number (Scholar’s Compass)
Week in Review: Walking Treadmill Edition
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.
1. Stand Up While You Read This! (Olivia Judson, NY Times Opinionator, 2/23/2010): an evolutionary biologist warns her reader:
Your chair is your enemy. It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you. …
Probably much easier to address by those who work in labs, go into the field, pace as we think/present. Some tips in the article for those who sit a lot. Any to add?
2.  Academic Bait-and-Switch, Part 6 (Henry Adams, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/25/2010).
… Today I wince at my naïveté. Studying literature doesn’t guarantee moral improvement any more than studying chemistry, economics, or plumbing does. I should have accepted that in my first year of graduate work at Elite National University, because the evidence was all around me, but I clung to my childish belief in the power of literature. In my second year, when my fellow teaching assistants elected me their representative to the first-year-composition committee, I even had a notion that I could help change the program for the better. …
The foundation of one’s vision for daily life, let alone culture making, when entering the messy milieu of any profession is vital. What is yours? Note: keep in mind that Henry Adams, the pseudonym for a professor of English at a liberal-arts college in the Midwest, shares his perspective in the Bait-and-Switch series.
3. Before you follow the link, take a guess on What They’re Reading on College Campuses (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/25/2010) or maybe I should make the question What bestsellers did Barnes & Noble and the Follett Higher Education Group sell in January 2010? Where do you draw your up and coming must reads, someplace like the Weekly Book List (Compiled by Nina C. Ayoub, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/22/2010)?
4. Do you practice the Examen? From our colleagues at The Well, Ann Boyd has written an excellent introduction to the Examen. This classical spiritual exercise was created by Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and it has served Christians from many traditions well over the centuries. If you journal already, or you are looking for a new way to reflect on your life and God’s work, check out Ann’s article.
5. New website for Books & Culture: ESN partner Books & Culture has launched a new website. If you like what you see, why not head over the ESN Subscription Discounts page and subscribe to B&C for only $5 a year?