This weekend was quite busy with academic activities. On Saturday, the University of Washington Geography Department hosted the Cascadia Critical Geographies Mini-Conference. There were talks on a range of critical geography topics, including health, indigeneity, race, etc. And there was an interesting panel on critical pedagogy (teaching) and a large discussion on the role of geography/ers in the Occupy movement. Immediately following the conference, a group of about 25 of us headed off to participate in a workshop at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. There were 6 faculty–2 each from UW, UBC, and SFU–and students from each school. The workshop was intended to help us work toward a dissertation proposal and get feedback from our peers and faculty to help with developing these proposals. We arrived at Friday Harbor when it was dark, so we couldn’t see much, but when we got up in the morning, we were all a little stunned by the beauty of the place:
The cabins we stayed in were very cute and cozy:
We saw a sea lion swimming in the harbor and some seagulls while we were standing and taking in the view before breakfast on Sunday:
We took a little post-lunch stroll again to get some fresh air. The clouds were moving in.
And there were deer everywhere–not afraid of us at all, and very focused on eating what greenery they could find:
In terms of food for our time at Friday Harbor, I definitely did not go hungry. I had oatmeal, a banana, cinnamon raisin toast, a glass of soymilk and some tea for breakfast. For lunch, I had a vegetable and hummus sandwich with a bowl of lentil soup, and a banana with peanut butter. And for dinner, there was a buffet of halibut and other things for the group, and planted in the middle of the buffet was this quite delicious meal for me:
Overall, the workshop was useful, and in addition to talking about our dissertations, there were plenary discussions covering topics of collaboration and publication–both of which I found very thought-provoking and informative. I got some productive feedback on my dissertation proposal, and, perhaps more importantly, I had some space to think about some other smaller projects I would like to do in the meantime. I realized that I hadn’t had the mental space with the general exams, my day-to-day responsibilities, the blog, and my crafting projects to really sit down and think about some of the other things that are important to me. It was time well-spent.
How was your weekend?
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