Touchdown!

As we began our final descent towards the island, all that was visible beneath us was more of the serene blue rippled-glass of the ocean. Where was the island?! The nice Bajan lady sitting next to me began chatting to me about her garden and the wonderful climate on Barbados, which helped to distract me from my anxiety temporarily. Soon enough, however, I was pasted to the window once more... but this time I was rewarded for my efforts. A few strains of the most beautiful turquoise asserted themselves against the deeper cerulean of the ocean -- a hint of shallower water -- and suddenly the azure-rimmed shoreline of the island was in view!!

I was struck instantly by how, well, small it seemed, especially compared to my own island. Long Island is nearly 120 miles long, about 1400 square miles, and home to more than 7.5 million people. Barbados, by contrast, is home to only about 275,000 locals, and is just 165 square miles in total land area. (To be fair, Long Island is the largest island in the continental US -- and, I found out in researching this, the most densely populated island in all of the US, including Hawaii).


Anyway, we disembarked from the plane and breezed through customs -- it was nothing like any other international customs I've been through (though admittedly my experience is not too broad compared with some). I quickly located my driver -- a friendly guy named Orlando -- and he regaled me with stories as we drove (down the left side of the road!) to the guest house. Actually, chatting with Orlando reminded me a lot of talking to taxi drivers in Beijing -- not because of any similarities in the topic of our conversation, but in terms of the ratio of words I understood to words I did not. The Bajan accent is a kind of blend of a Caribbean dialect with some strong British and Irish hints thrown in, especially in rounding out the ends of words. This is no doubt an artifact of the island's interesting colonial history, but didn't make for particularly great conversation, especially at first, as I eventually was reduced to smiling and nodding and making noncommittal, friendly noises in response to his indecipherable chit-chat. After a while I began to pick up a bit more of what he was saying, but not much.


We stopped to pick up some groceries, then drove down a twisting gravel road to reach the guesthouse where I am staying. It's certainly not the lap of luxury most people probably imagine for accommodations in Barbados, but the place was immaculately clean and smelled of fresh laundry all over the house when I arrived. Janice showed me to my room, which is on the second floor, with a balcony (!), two rooms (!), two beds (!), and, most crucial of all, AIR CONDITIONING. The very blurry photo above is meant to show the very tropical print of the fabric on the chairs in the "sitting room" where there is a TV, refrigerator, and small table.


In this picture you can see the bedroom behind me, with the beautiful Bajan sunlight streaming in behind me. As you have probably guessed by the fact that you are reading this now, my biggest and happiest surprise was finding that the house has wireless internet, with a better connection than the one I have back at my apartment in DC!

The view from one window (out towards the sea)

The view from another window (down to the street)

I've got some unpacking to do before dinner, and then I'll need to review a bit for the first day of the conference. I'll update tomorrow with details from Day One!

Blogging from the skies!

As I write this, we are cruising at an altitude of 31008ft above the Atlantic Ocean, approximately half-way between New York and Barbados. When I left DC this morning the sun was just beginning to rise, and when we took off from New York about four hours later, the skies were overcast and grey, with an outside temperature just above freezing. In Barbados, the pilot informs us, the temperature is holding steady at around 82°F under sunny skies. Can’t wait to touch down…!!

In other news, I’d forgotten how much I like airports. (Airplanes, not so much… I hate having to sit in the same stale space with a crowd of other people without being able to move for long periods of time. Of course this is only an issue with really long flights, like those to, oh, I don’t know, China, Taiwan, or Thailand – this trip is blissfully short by contrast! But I digress.) There’s something kind of neat about the independence of travel that is really manifest in the airport setting. I’m normally not much of a people-watcher, but I love observing my fellow Americans (and assorted foreigners) here. Caught between time zones and terminals, with the rest of our lives put mostly on hold, we are in a sort of collective suspended motion. We buy pretzels or trail mix; watch CNN on shared flat-panel screens; read books or flip through magazines; queue up on demand; trip over bags and suitcases; and together inhabit a transient space that is at once alien and oddly familiar.

I’ve been trying to put the finishing touches on the material I’ve prepared for my presentation. I’m really quite glad to be going on the second day. There’s a school of thought that would argue it would be better to get things over with by going early on the first day, but since this is my first conference EVER I think I’ll be glad of the opportunity to watch a bunch of others present first to get a sense of what is and isn’t appropriate, and even gladder to have the time to alter what I’ve prepared before I speak. For some reason I don’t feel all that nervous about it yet – maybe because, as situations go, this one is pretty low-risk. All I’m doing is presenting – for the first time – a paper that I wrote in my first semester of graduate school, at a conference that includes lots of non-philosophers who will almost certainly be tuning out anyway, with an audience composed entirely of people I’ve never met before and probably won’t meet again, most of whom actually live in Barbados or the UK. Besides, as I was joking to my friend Kyle yesterday, even if every possible thing goes wrong at the conference and I leave ashamed and humiliated – the next day I’ll wake up and still have an entire weekend to myself on a gorgeous tropical island that I’m not even paying for!!!

Just remind me to keep my receipts.

Programme posted!

Hello hello!

Much excitement here in DC as the date of departure rapidly approaches... The programme for the conference has been posted here. As you can see, I will be presenting during the second morning session on Monday -- not ideal timing as the audience is likely to be fading in and out as they tire of speeches and begin to long for lunch (or is that only me?), but I'm not really complaining. Probably the worst time to speak is mid-afternoon on the second day, when virtually no-one is paying attention any more. I'll also be speaking immediately after one of the main conference organizers (!!). I hope I won't be too nervous!

In other news, I'm just tying up loose ends here (grading, holding office hours, etc.) and packing (sunscreen, bathing suits, books to read on the beach) in preparation for the trip. I'll be leaving very, very early Wednesday morning for a flight to JFK, where I'll spend three hours waiting for the plane to take me to Bridgetown! I'll arrive in Barbados in the afternoon, and will be sure to take loads of pictures on my way to the hotel. Can't wait!

Latest Developments

Tickets have been purchased, hotel arrangements made, and I am getting pretty excited about the trip! I'll be flying to UWI for the conference, which will take place on the 28th and 29th of this month. After that, I'll have two days to explore the island (or, who am I kidding, lie on the beach doing nothing) before heading back to the states. A short trip but hopefully a nice break from winter up here, and a chance to polish up my international exploration skills for my next big adventure this summer: Thailand!

Paper posted!

The papers are up on the conference website -- you can see them here, if you'd like. It's called "Care and the Pedagogical Relationship: A Teleological Approach."

The abstract of my paper is:

The tension between discipline and care, fairness and nurturance, is central to issues in pedagogical philosophy. This dichotomy is echoed in psychology by the the justice/care distinction in moral thinking drawn by Gilligan (1982). Yet philosophical reactions to Gilligan’s work have varied dramatically. Even those who take seriously her claim that the so-called “care perspective” deserves attention in ethical theory often differ in their application of this idea, taking ‘caring’ as a principle of right action, as a virtue or character trait, or as constituting a new ethical theory entirely. This paper will expand upon the suggestion made by Little (1998) that the justice and care orientations represent different standpoints from which to do ethical theory rather than constituting ready-made theories themselves, arguing that a teleological understanding of the “normative essences” of certain relationships can incorporate some of Gilligan’s most crucial insights. The application of this idea to pedagogical ethics – one field in which the concept of ‘care’ has been taken quite seriously – will serve as a lens to focus attention on the benefits and potential flaws of such an approach.

Accommodation and other details still in the works... will keep you posted!

Hello again!

I never thought I'd be back in the travel-blogging business so soon, but life has a way of surprising you, doesn't it? This one of life's surprises came in the shape of an invitation -- my first ever -- to present a paper at a philosophy conference at the University of the West Indies. This is incredibly exciting for a number of reasons:

1. Professional validation - the first paper I ever submitted to a professional conference was accepted, and I'm going to have the opportunity to present my work to a body of interdisciplinary peers for feedback and suggestions. Naturally I'm crazy-nervous, but I was crazy-nervous before my first lecture too, and I survived that. It's all part of gradually joining the world of professional academia. So exciting!!

2. Conference funding - the Graduate School has grants available to graduate students who will be presenting at conferences to cover some (or all) of their travel and accommodation expenses. Life for graduate students is characterized by a general aura of destitution (especially when one hears from one's friends at BCG or on Wall Street), but travel money for academic purposes is a huge perk.

3. The University of the West Indies - I know almost nothing about Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean philosophy (or history, or anything else for that matter -- in fact, it's only within about the last 10 minutes that I first recognized and then corrected my tendency to spell 'Caribbean' with two R's and not enough B's), so this will be an incredible learning opportunity. The university also has a strong interdisciplinary focus, which I am so on board with. Also, did I mention that it's in BARBADOS??

So here I am once again, filling out forms, submitting budget proposals, and researching like crazy in anticipation of another international adventure on academia's dime. I'll post links to the conference, as well as updated travel plans and perhaps some information on Barbadian history in the coming weeks. Oh, and I guess I should write that paper I'm supposed to be presenting, too...