Présentation / Whoami?

To introduce myself...

Right now (30/03/05 17:06:37), I'm a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and I'm a visiting lecturer at Indiana University South Bend's Department of Sociology and Anthropology for the academic year 2004–2005 (which is coming to an end very soon). I got this position from the Future Faculty Teaching Fellowship program from IUB's University Graduate School. A great program. Each of us teaches one or two semesters at one of the "regional" campuses (any of IU campuses besides Bloomington). Our status is that of full-time faculty but we have a lower teaching load than our colleagues because part of our time is devoted to our dissertation. IUB gives us an amount as fellowship and the regional campus (IUSB in my case) gives us a small salary. Not huge amounts of money altogether, but we're not in there for the money. We're there for the experience. In a very real, direct, and efficient way. We get to participate in every aspect of faculty life, from collegial relationships to faculty meetings. "You can't pay for that kind of experience!" We also get a faculty mentor at the host institution with whom we're able to discuss pedagogical issues. Our mentors also help quite a bit in adapting to new teaching conditions. My own experience at IUSB has been ideal/optimal/great. It's a very interesting campus. Extremely motivating as a teaching environment because people care about actual learning. And despite the emphasis on teaching, faculty members do get a chance to publish, sometimes more than their colleagues at "Research I" universities (like IUB).

Donc, je suis prof. J'enseigne quoi? Anthropologie culturelle, anthropologie linguistique, études africaines. Du moins, cette année. J'ai aussi enseigné en anthropologie symbolique et anthropologie de la religion. Mes intérêts me portent aussi vers la musique, l'esthétique et la sémiotique aussi bien que vers l'études des systèmes sociaux décentralisés (réseaux sociaux, communautés d'expérience, etc.). Évidemment, l'aspect linguistique implique les productions verbales, la performance, la littérature orale, etc. Bon, c'est bien d'être prof et tout ça, mais je suis aussi un être humain. Des tas d'intérêts. Oh, bien sûr, les trucs usuels. La bouffe, les voyages, la musique, la littérature, le cinéma, l'informatique... Mais ça prend des aspects un peu plus spécifiques, que j'élaborerai plus tard. Après tout, un des avantages d'être sur Blogger (plutôt que sur un site professionnel/académique), c'est de pouvoir parler de mes autres passions.

Yes, I'm a passionate guy. Not in the Spanish Romantic Lover with a rose between his teeth. Although, that could work too. But more of a passion for life, people, meaning, thoughts, and passion itself.

Ça signifie parfois que j'en fais un peu trop. Déjà, ce blogue semble s'orienter dans cette tendance. Mais bon...

My interests, passions, tastes, ideas are oftentimes very "disparate" (again, hence the blog title) and come out in an apparently incoherent manner. But I like to make links between different things. In new ways, if possible. So what's common between homebrewing beer and iTunes playlists? This is left as an exercise to the reader. Yeah, singular.