While I’m less than optimistic about having a complete, ready to defend, project proposal for my dissertation by the end of the semester, I am optimistic that I will have something by mid-spring semester. The issues have been as follows: Time. My grading has been rather heavy this semester, double what it was last semester. [...]

Raks Nativity, the Christmas story told through Middle Eastern dance, is in its second year and is being held at the Cambridge YMCA on Dec. 11th from 7-8:30 PM. The show is an interesting use of Middle Eastern dance and acting and features a nice mix of dancers, including yours truly. There is a cane [...]

I began observing my grad student teachers this past month. I’ve observed fellow TAs before (as more of a favor than a job requirement), but this is a little different. Being in grad school for education has definitely increased my knowledge of what good teaching is. Other than getting up earlier in the morning than [...]

Twitter has been remarkably a time-saver for me this semester. For one of my classes, we are supposed to stay up to date with higher education news. It can be time-consuming, and I often forget to visit websites like The Chronicles of Higher Education. Luckily, many of these publications have feeds and tweet news articles. [...]

Because I am planning/kind of expected to have a quantitative piece to my dissertation, I am traveling to the American Institute of Physics to find out what data they have collected, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. I have the feeling that what they have will largely contribute to what my dissertation topic is. [...]

I’ve thoroughly been enjoying my return to Bharatanatyam. My legs are tired, but taking the time out week to go my class is worth it. Switching styles yet again has been somewhat difficult. I think it’s good to keep things fresh, but it is a bit frustrating that what was acceptable at one school is [...]

Getting back to a routine is more exciting than it sounds. With all of September, I alternated being very busy to prepare for things and then being dead tired for the rest of the week/staying afloat. I’ve been able to find a bit more time for my dance classes, which is nice. The Shadia classes [...]