Yes, You Can: Being an Academic and a Mother – REDUX
Can one be an academic and a mother? Of course. Of course you can, and yet, this question is a common one. It is one female graduate students…
Tag: SLOW FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Top of 2016 – or thereabouts! #themeweek2016
Who can believe that it’s almost Spring – where did the time fly?! At Allegra we just realized that we never paused to reflect on all that 2016…
Ethnographies of Academia #UniversityCrisis
There is a mythology of nourishment deposited in the language of the intellect.[1] Thoughts are digested. Ideas are chewed upon. There is hunger for information and a thirst…
The International Institute of Not Doing Much #Slow
Browsing the web in preparation of this ‘Slow week’, we came across an online initiative whose Manifesto resonated with Allegra’s very own. Below we reproduce the Manifesto of…
Racing for what? #Slow
In this post, Ruth Mueller explores how the compulsion for speed in academia plays out in the lives of postdocs. Slow science is interesting for me because I…
Is #Slow Academia Conservative?
In this post, Heather Mendick argues that some calls for slowing down scholarship mask a conservative politics. Last July I blogged about how, despite my love for online communication,…
Let’s take it SLOW! The #slow university? REDUX
This Allegra week we remain in retreat spirits, and will consequently revisit some more ‘Jewel’s of Allie’s Archive’. And what more appropriate theme for doing so than SLOW. We…
The #slow professor (book excerpt)
The Slow Professor originated in telephone conversations about coping with our academic jobs. Not reading an email sent by the department chair at 10:45 p.m. until the next…
#Slow Week! An introduction
Those who have followed Allegra’s adventures from its creation in 2013 will probably remember that our initial motto was “Slow down!”. Prior to launching the website, Allegra’s…
Because we’re #HAPPY? REDUX
Today we have, once again, witnessed the arrival of the World Happiness Reports – reports that claim nothing less than to offer a neatly quantified, ‘objective’ measurement of just…
The Deportation Conundrum – REDUX #BORDERS
Today we re-visit a post on the deportation conundrum by Barak Kalir. The post was first published in the spring of 2014 as a part of our thread…
REDUX: Scenes of #Gentrification
Scene One: London Soho and Bloomsbury I used to love London for its Indian and Thai vegan restaurants, vibrant queer cafes, independent bookstores, second hand antiquaries, esoteric health…
Gentrification, diversification & events – let’s take it SLOW!
Ever so often we find it indispensable to remind ourselves & everyone else that one of Allegra’s guiding mottos is ‘slow food for thought‘. Indeed, one of the…
REDUX: From Crisis to the University of Utopia aka MURI!
We conclude this dark thematic week on University Crisis with our insistence to be also ‘tongue in cheek’. We remind both ourselves and others: when policy making is…
REDUX: The Neoliberal Race to the Bottom Affects Us All!* #UniversityCrisis
Over the last years academics from different disciplines have become increasingly visible on popular and social media, narrating personal stories and reflecting on the growing casualization of academi…
REDUX: A Facelift & Discussion over Academic Blogging – and PLEA for support! #RELAUNCH
What is an academic blog? Who form its audience and who are, or should be, its authors? How does blogging resonate with more ‘serious’ – or at minimum…
God Exists in Yemen, part 2: the Moral Economy of Rizq
This is the second part of a long essay, first part of which was published here. 1.1. The Yemeni Arab Spring: crisis and revolution So how did I…
GOD EXISTS IN YEMEN, part 1: On the meaning of livelihood
If you can rely on God with due reliance, He will provide you with sustenance in such a manner as He provides birds and beasts. (A saying of the…
Aftertaste: memories of #postsocialism
Allegra’s thematic thread on #postsocialism is coming to its end. We hope that the eight delicious specialties Allegra served you over the past two weeks have pleased your…
REDUX: Russian and Polar Bears Unite! A Follow-Up.
What is 19cm high, 20cm wide, weighs only 680grams but carries a President? Right – it’s the Russian Bear! And what is flying high into the sky? Right…
REDUX: Simulacrum Crimea (Anthropoliteia Virtual Roundtable PART 2) #UKRAINE
Today we re-post our conversation with Judith Beyer from a joint virtual roundtable with Anthropoliteia. In her commentary, Judith answers the question: “What has struck you the most,…
AVMOFA: UNEXPECTED GIFTS AS ANALYTICAL TOOLS
It is the early(ish) stages of my fieldwork among Hindus from Suriname living in the Netherlands. I am reluctantly attending a question and answer period with a well-known…