More advice from Savage Minds to grad school applicants…

December 19, 2009 by erkan

(More) advice on graduate school applications

from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology ? A Group Blog by Rex

Deadlines for graduate school applications are coming up again. Last year I wrote some quick pointers on applying to graduate school but since then I?ve developed my boiler-plate for our school even more as additional requests for information have entered my mailbox. So here is the latest iteration of my advices for applying to graduate school. Although it is written for where I teach, most of what I say is applicable to anywhere. Good luck!

Not Just Drones: Militants Can Snoop on Most U.S. Warplanes

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Yesterday, news broke that insurgents used a $25 application available online to hack into US military drone video feeds, and view, copy, and potentially distribute their contents. Hmmmm… Unauthorized copying of audio and video material? Some on Twitter have suggested that we might just send the MPAA or RIAA after them — then, for sure we’ll at last find Bin Laden. But Wired Danger Room’s Noah Shachtman says,

Herbert Brandl at Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman

from Contemporary Art Daily by Forrest

Artist: Herbert Brandl

Venue: Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck

Exhibition Title: Spektrolith

Date: November 14, 2009 ? January 29, 2010

Read more

Special Issue on Michel Foucault by Theory, Culture and Society Journal

December 11, 2009 by erkan

You need to have subscription to this great journal to read the articles but I am sure all major university libraries are subscribed to. At the end there is also roundup on art/intellectual/academic links…

[update: all articles downloadable here]

Introduction: Thinking after Michel Foucault

Couze Venn and Tiziana Terranova

Theory Culture Society 2009;26 1-11
http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/6/1

Alternatives to the Prison: Dissemination or Decline of Social Control?

Michel Foucault

Theory Culture Society 2009;26 12-24
http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/6/12

Foucaults Untimely Struggle: Toward a Form of Spirituality

Paul Rabinow

Theory Culture Society 2009;26 25-44
http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/6/25

Identity, Nature, Life: Three Biopolitical Deconstructions

Judith Revel

Theory Culture Society 2009;26 45-54
http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/6/45

"Wim Wenders closing speech – I'm talking about us, Europeans!

November 17, 2009 by erkan

And now there’s a T-shirt to prove it. Hiney shirts at CafePress

Founs in H1N1: It’s Pronounced “Hiney”

Wim Wenders closing speech – I’m talking about us, Europeans!

from LabforCulture Blog

Closing speech by Wim Wenders, President of the European Film Academy, during the European Culture Forum.

The speech was read out by EFA director Ms Döring, and is available for download as a PDF on the European Commission website.

A few months ago, the European Film Academy organised a think tank dedicated to “THE IMAGE OF EUROPE”.

The think tank took place under the patronage of the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, who actually joined us on that occasion and took a very active and very outspoken part in it.

and Erkan’s rounup of interesting things from the web:

17th Annual EU – Turkey Conference of Journalists at Bilgi U.

October 13, 2009 by erkan

We cordially invite you to a panel discussion on the future of EU-Turkey relations.

Within the scope of the 17^th Annual EU – Turkey Conference of Journalists, a panel discussion on the future of EU-Turkey relations will take place at İstanbul Bilgi University?s santralistanbul Campus. Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bağış, the Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey Ambassador Marc Pierini and a group of journalists will participate in the panel where current developments in the EU-Turkey relations will be discussed. The panel will be opened by Prof. Dr. Halil Güven, Rector of İstanbul Bilgi University and moderated by Prof. Ayhan Kaya, Director of BİLGİ?s European Institute.

The journalists invited to the panel include (in alphabetical order): Mehmet Altan (Star-tbc), Murat Belge (Taraf), Florence Biedermann (AFP, France), Abdülhamit Bilici (Zaman / Cihan News Agency), Mehmet Ali Birand (Posta / Milliyet/ HDN / Kanal D), Cansu Çamlıbel (Hürriyet), Evangelos Demiris (Athens News Agency, Greece), Konstanty Gebert (Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland), Rolf Gustavsson (Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden), Emil Hurezeanu (Realitatea-Catavencu, Romania), John Peet (The Economist, UK), Leyla Tavşanoğlu (Cumhuriyet-tbc), Michael Thumann (Die Zeit, Germany).

Two universities, two perspectives

October 9, 2009 by erkan

Two promotional video spreading in the web, mostly in Facebook. The first one is about Bilgi University, particularly Visual Communication Design program. The second one promotes the library at Koç University. The latter is hosted at the library site and a kitsch product officially owned. The former is a viral one, not officially hosted or … Read more

Burqas and anthropologists

September 28, 2009 by erkan

France asks anthropologist for advice on burqa-ban

by Lorenz

France banned burqas in public schools in 2004. Now, a parliamentary commission is investigating a possible ban on burqas in public places and anthropology professor John Bowen was asked to testify on this matter, Student Life and New York Times report.

And older round of anthro news and unrelated images from the web:

Darwin ban is a shame!

March 12, 2009 by erkan

Check out the related material below and more…

Tips from Savage Minds for graduate study applications

February 28, 2009 by erkan

Rex from Savage Minds provides tips for applying anthro programs but i guess they are relevant for any social science programs…

Getting into graduate school in anthropology: What we/I look for in applicants
By Rex on How To
I am serving on the admissions committee of my department again this year, and as usual we are in a position to admit at maximum 20% of the total applicants we receive. I don’t want to reveal the confidential deliberations of the committee, but it has gotten me thinking a lot about how to apply for graduate school, what I look for in an application and how people should prepare theirs. What people look for varies from place to place, and different people will have different priorities than I do, but I offer this to help orient people to an application process that is often confusing and opaque to people who go through it. What, then, do I look for when we admit people to graduate school?………

Bologna Process at Bilgi

February 4, 2009 by erkan

What do we do in the campus now? It is the semester break for students but we work on several bureacratic tasks. I change readings every semester so now i have to work on two syllabi for the courses I will be lecturing in the Spring semester. The classes will begin on 16 Feb. But … Read more

Toby Miller on Trends and Issues in Cultural Studies

January 28, 2009 by erkan

Wolf Vostell, Coca-Cola, 1961 FOUND IN LACMA Features First U.S. Exhibition to Examine Art Developed During the Cold War

"Government 2.0: How Social Media Could Transform Gov PR

January 7, 2009 by erkan

Political Islam, secular elite and democracy in the Middle East (1) by A. KADİR YILDIRIM

In Op-Ed

What is a bigger threat to democratization in the Middle East, reigning secular-elite parties and regimes or popular Islamic parties?

Government 2.0: How Social Media Could Transform Gov PR

In web 2.0

It’s easy to see governments as nameless, faceless monoliths, something impersonal or, even worse, untrustworthy. Much of that is because government culture remains steeped in traditional ideas about public relations and outreach work, notions that have become archaic in an Internet-enabled, hyper-connected world. Just as private companies are learning to embrace social media to manage brand reputations, governments must adapt if they wish to effectively communicate with their "customers" — a.k.a. their citizens and stakeholders.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Paying the Tax (The Tax Collector), oil on panel, 1620 found in Seven Decades of Collecting: Celebrating the USC Fisher Museum of Art’s Acquisitions

"Academic blogs attract growing audience

December 28, 2008 by erkan

"Turkey discussing

December 27, 2008 by erkan

Turkey discussing

For a week now, Turkey has been the scene of debates regarding three texts.
These are: the "Apology to Armenians" campaign, "Being Different in Turkey: Alienation on the Axis of Religion and Conservatism," a joint study by the Open Society Institute (OSI) and Boğaziçi University, and the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) report, "A Roadmap for the Solution of the Kurdish Question: Policy Suggestions to the Government from the Region."

"Anti-Bologna movement spreads in Spain…

December 15, 2008 by erkan

Anti-Bologna movement spreads in Spain

LEIGH PHILLIPS

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Opposition to the Bologna Process, an EU-inspired series of university and college reforms, has expanded substantially across Spain in recent weeks, as students protest, occupy school buildings and even block rail lines.

In the last week, demonstrations and occupations have in particular stepped up in Madrid with sit-ins taking over faculties or otherwise protesting at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), the rectorate of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and University of Alcalá de Henares northeast of the capital. Actions have also taken place in Valencia, Seville and further afield. In Barcelona, students blocked railway lines. The Bologna Process has also provoked significant student opposition in Italy, Finland and Croatia.

agasi-de-stijl-kaart

The charming city of Leyden in the Netherlands (’Leiden’ in Dutch, pop. 120,000) could without much hyperbole be called the Dutch Oxford. The town boasts the country’s oldest university and is home to museums, libraries, botanical gardens and other institutions connected to its position as the country’s prime centre of learning. Leyden is also home to Oudt Leyden, Europe’s (and possibly the world’s) oldest pancake house. VIA

"A CENTURY OF LEVI-STRAUSS

December 5, 2008 by erkan

A CENTURY OF LEVI-STRAUSS

A tribute to Professor Claude Levi-Strauss born 28th November 1908

Daniel Miller, UCL

Few of us are not entranced by tales of discovery. The magical feeling when something which previously existed but, but we were entirely unaware of, become known. Humanity is given a new consciousness that once we have gained seems impossible that we should ever lose it again. It’s easier to think about such discoveries in terms of natural science, such as the discovery of the atom or of penicillin. But we have been equally transformed over the last century by a series of discoveries in social science. It’s now hard to explain to people what it meant and what it was really like to live before feminism, that things that seem totally obvious afterwards, were previously simply not available to be thought about. In my memory the most profound, most long lasting, extraordinary and singular moment of discovery came when I was a student in anthropology at Cambridge. When Edmund Leach, who acted as John the Baptist, to this French Messiah, gave us a lecture about Levi-Strauss, and I knew, instantly, that I would never see the world again in the same way.

three face of Levi-Strauss VIA

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The great divide

20 November 2008

By Hannah Fearn

The discipline of anthropology has split firmly into two factions – social anthropologists and evolutionary anthropologists. Hannah Fearn asks whether or not the warring sides can be reconciled

Renowned anthropologist Eric Wolf once described his discipline as "the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences".

Perhaps he was attempting to capture the uniqueness of a subject that can talk to both academic camps but, by the time he died in 1999, his words articulated the growing split within the discipline.

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Rex from Savage Minds provides tips for applying anthro programs but i guess they are relevant for any social science programs…

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