Summer Time

I have a lot of real world stuff to do in the next couple of weeks. Then I have a lot more real world stuff to do over the next couple of months. So until August or so blogging will probably be lighter than normal. In particular I will probably not be posting any heavy academic pieces during that time. Instead posts are far more likely to deal with my personal observations.

Comparative History

There are not too many people who do comparative history. Yet, I think when done well comparative history is a lot more interesting than the traditional focus on a single "nation state." I have been trying to do more comparative work. My last couple of publications have comparisons between Africa and Eurasia and I would like to continue in this vein. But, I do realize there is a strong bias against comparative work in favor of more narrow foci. Does anybody else see any merit in comparative history?

Life

Sometimes I think my life is way harder than it should be. But, then I remember that a lot of other people have it a lot worse than me. Still it would be nice if every little thing was not such a colossal struggle all the time.

Haircut

I finally got my long hippie hair cut short today. It was down past my shoulders this morning. It is now a military style buzz cut. I will say that the barber really did earn his four cedis. He spent a lot of effort clipping off the locks.

Open Thread on what is happening in the US

It is hard to believe, but it has been almost five years since I left Arivaca. Since that time I have not spent much time in the US. The longer I have been gone the more difficult I have found it has been to keep up with events in the US.

Weather in Legon

The weather is beautiful in Legon today. It is the rainy season and a couple night ago we had a massive rain storm with strong winds, lightening, and thunder. The storm knocked over a number of trees and fences on campus. But, now everything is bright and sunny here.

More Literature

I have started reading in no particular order Jonathan Kellerman's series of mysteries staring Milo Sturgis and Alex Delaware. They are not great literature, but they are entertaining. So far no Estonians have shown up in the books.

Spring Cleaning

Today I did some spring cleaning. I got the small bathroom cleaner. The sink and toilet are okay now, but the floor still needs another washing.I will give it another cleaning next week.

Help with historiography?

The two people who taught Historiography here last time have told me that they found it very challenging due to the fact that the students had difficulty grasping abstract concepts. I went to the library today and most of what they had on historiography on the shelves was several decades old. There was one book published in the mid-1980s, but it had not been entered in the system yet so I could not check it out. So I got two books from the early 1970s that appear to deal mostly with the challenge of structuralism as borrowed from French sociology to the traditional reliance of history upon narrating events. I think that these debates might be a bit outdated for 2012. Does anybody have any suggestions on what I should cover in the class? Bear in mind hat this is a 200 level class so the only history the students will have had are Introduction to Earliest Civilizations and Selected Topics in World History both of which are pretty broad and basic introductory courses. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wrapping up the semester

Today we had our last departmental meeting of the semester. It lasted four hours. But, we did get a fair amount of work accomplished. I have my new class assignments for next year. The first semester I will be teaching Aspects of World History 1914-1945 and Historiography. The next semester I will be teaching Aspects of World History since 1945, Methodology of History as well as a MPhil course on race and ethnicity. In August we will also be getting four new people. That makes a net gain of eight full time faculty since I arrived here.

Water

It is now day three and we still have no running water. Eventually I will get used to walking across the street every morning to get a bucket of water so I can wash. But, right now it seems like an annoyance.

Life in Legon

It is reading week so there is not much happening other than students coming into my office asking for clarification in preparation of the final exams later this month. We also still have no running water.