Saturday, November 26, 2005

A new blog

I have launched another blog yesterday.
It's dedicated for my academic interests, that is, history.
From now on, every time I write something academic in this new blog, I will put a notice in this Miscellanea. I will be writing as briefly and clearly as possible. I hope you could visit the blog from time to time!

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Diary: 23 Nov. 2005 Jazz night in Black Swan

I finally went to a pub called Black Swan last night. It's one of the very, very old pub in york, and the history of the black wooden building traces back to 15th century. The pub is known for its live music; and Wednesdays being its 'Jazz Night', I and my friend went there to see it. It was a very chilly day, so people sat around a proper fireplace, having local beers etc. to warm themselves. We went to upstairs where they played jazz. We didn't intially know that it was actually a 'jazz jam session night', which is more or less like a jazz version of an 'open mic night'. So, somehow I got to play for a little bit! I was a bit scared at the beginning; but I enjoyed on the whole because both the players and the audience were very friendly!! I would be going there again to listen to - and perhaps also enjoy playing - some jazz tunes.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Winter's come!

 
Oh, it's been so cold for the last few days!! Wind stings, and the lake in the campus is now frozen and ducks and birds are walking on the ice! Yes, it's been said that it's really cold here this winter. How is Sheffield, Midlands, Suffork, Norfork, Tokyo, Kyoto, Macao, and Taipei? Is it getting colder there?? Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Politics of Identity: 2005 Morrell Address given by Lord Parekh

I went to see the annual Morrell Address on Toleration this evening, given by Professor Lord Parekh (two distinguished titles!!). It turned out to be a very, very stimulating lecture.

The topic was on the politics of identity. I think he is a very distinguished scholar in that he discusses - with depth and clarity - both potentials and drawbacks of 'identity' as a category to analyze forms of politics. The depth and clarity of his lecture was such that I learned a great deal even though I'm not at all working on identity. I shall come back to this topic if time allows me to do so.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Science without a conscience?

I want to comment on Wanyu's
recent entry
appeared on 9 November. I was going to write it on her blog; but it turns out to be tooo long, and a quite independent topic by itself. Now, it's more like my personal declaration of what I take to be a 'professional academic'. If you feel like it, click here.*

*Alternatively, you can access to the comment by visiting the archive of Nov. 2004.

Music Night, 12 Nov. 2005

 
We had delightful dishes and conversation (thanx J, TY, Y & esp. WY!!!); plus nice music with two drummers (an apology for neighbours). I'm looking forward to having another session very soon!

See another photo as well!! Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Guy Fawke's Night and Michael Nyman night

Had a few nice things over the weekend.
Went to see a bonfire and fireworks to Heslington Church just by the Uni. campus. See this photo or go to Andy's blog for a brief explanation.

I also went to see a piano recital by Michael Nyman in Leed. He's supposed to be a very influencial figure in minimalisit contemproary music, and has written many pieces for films including an award-winning 'Piano Man'. [The film is actually called 'The Piano'. Thanks Jenny] I should have watched films using his pieces; that would have helped me appreciate his music more. Have you seen the film? If you have, would you recommend it??

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Another concern

This is an addition to the previous post. I think I have been concerned a bit too much with teaching thing. I need to worry more about my own business, i mean, my research topic. To be honest, I find it quite difficult to set a concerete goal at this stage of my three-year research. But I know, I'd better have one. I would like to ask some help from those who are (or used to be) working on a long-term project. What kind of goal did you set for yourself at the beginning of the project? What did you learn from your project management? Do you have any advice at all?

Third TA

I had the third session as a TA the day before yesterday. It was about the English Reformation. All of the students, i would say, were well involved in the discussion, partly thanks to the familiarity of the topic.

Of course, it's not to say that the discussion was alwalys analytically perceptive. Sometimes the students were talking about it based on their previous knowledge about the topic, instead of questioning their previous ideas and impressions by using the reading materials given to them. This is perhaps because some of them did not read the material closely. More crucially, however, it can be also because they (and I) have only begun to examine critically the ways in which our perceptions and impressions of the past are constructed. One important lesson I get from studying history is that our impressions on big events like the Reformation are so much sustained by a chain of implicit assumptions that our taken-for-granted knowledge begin to collapse once we see it closely and consider why scholars are still busy writing about it.

Take the very word 'Reformation' for example. The point is that such a word can operate as much to conceal as to reveal what we suppose the word stands for. While the word Reformation gives us an impression of a shift from Catholicism to Protestantism, we are not very sure if we can safely assume that there was a clear shift from one well-established organizaiton and a well-defined system of beliefs, to equal counterparts. Indeed, one of the reading material suggests that while the legisrative aspect of the reformation went well, 'popular' aspect did not. This raises questions like 'whose reformation was it?', and 'how did the word "Reformation" operate when the thoroughgoing reformation was yet to come?' So taking the word 'Reformation' seriously lead us to realize how far we do not know about the subject concerned.

From the next session onward, I will try to draw as much attention to this uncertain aspect of our historical knowledge as possible.