“Interdisciplinary” is a hot term in academic circles these days—recall, if you will, the Mark Taylor’s proposal to reorganize the university around on “zones of inquiry” such as “Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life and…
I have the pleasure of announcing two tenure-track positions at Cornell that are of special relevance to me, one in my home department (Government) and one covering my geographical area of interest (Southeast Asia). Please distribute widely. The first position…
I was summoned for jury duty today, something that’s never happened to me before. Juries are interesting to social scientists because–at least at the summons stage–they are the closest thing that you get to a random sample of the people…
Forgive us, but today we (by which I mean “I,” that is, TP) will indulge in some sappy reminiscing. The other night I had dinner at the home of Andrew MacIntyre, who’s probably been the most important advocate that I…
All of these serious blog posts have me worried that I’ve lost my sense of humor. So, herewith, some silly stuff. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was up in Tokyo telling Japanese people what to do yesterday. Among his suggestions…
When I am tired from interviewing people, it’s good to sit back with a Bintang beer and watch some TV. The Australia Network is great for this purpose, especially on the weekends when it shows rugby almost non-stop. Australians take…
Just about every time I (TP) meet someone like a security guard, a librarian, a receptionist, or someone like that, I get asked this question. Now, I’m not sure what most people’s general experience with Westerners is, but JM and…
Here’s another example of Indonesia making a mockery out of us. When we were in Indonesia, one of our favorite dishes was sayur asem, sour Javanese soup. We included a recipe for it awhile back. Sayur asem, though, has some…
As the title here says, congratulations are in order for JM, who will (unless anything unexpected happens) be Adjunct Professor of Music at Southern Connecticut State University for the Spring 2006 semester. With any luck, she will be able to…
In Malaysia, there are at least four different naming conventions. Then there is Indonesia, which has a whole different system. Needless to say, this can get confusing when it comes time to do things like bibliographies. Furthermore, I use a…
