Small is big!

We just had an awesome presentation of Stephen Small, UCLA professor of African American Studies. His conceptions of racism and reparation are quite interesting. There are new articles and books to check now. Here, a link to the complete presentation. It's in MP3 format.

Cheers!

First classes

Buenos dias!

There are many things happening here. The classes are not light. Many of the people here are from the USA. Most of them study at UCLA, I guess Berkeley. I'm not.

But there are also some other people from other places. Canada, Italy, Portugal, Spain... They are here because of their Masters, for their PhD program. I'm not.

Some of them do extensive research in ethnic studies, or in gender studies, or in sexuality studies, or something else. I don't.

They are dying coping, studying, rereading stuff. Well... I'm not as much.

I'm here to learn to think in a different way. I'm taking some nice lessons and ideas back home.

I intend to go for Masters next year. I intend to develop a research based on the ideas raised here. But I do not intend to go for Berkeley, nor Texas, nor Barcelona. I teach children now, and I intend to do that for a while. I like... I'd better say... I love what I do, and that makes me think twice (or more) in leaving them behind to lock myself in academia.

Besides, Tarragona is such a beautiful city! I'm also enjoying my time here. I'll post some pictures later.

Cheers!

Safe arrival

Well, I guess you know what happened to my Immigration fears. They were debunked by Portuguese authorities. My Immigration procedures in Lisbon were not as I expected. In fact it was like this:

After waiting a long 30 minutes line, I went to the Immigration officer booth, showing my passport and opening a folder full of letters, documents and etc. She said “good morning”, which I replied. I immediately said my destiny was Barcelona, already waiting her questioning. Her first question was “do you already have the connection ticket?”. I said yes.

My experience and readings about Immigration taught me to never answer what was not asked. She didn’t look at me. She spent some time typing in the computer. And then, she opened my passport, stamped it and gave it back to me saying “have a nice stay”.

What? No more questions? No asking “when are you leaving?”, or a “where are you staying?”

I got my stuff, closed the folder and continued my way through the baggage claim. Walked out of the airport, then bus stop. I waited 1h30 for the bus to Tarragona.

I am safe and sound in Spanish territory.

Cheers!

Last checkup

Well... here I go. I'm going over everything again, making sure I'm not forgetting anything behind. It's not about clothes. I guess I am taking more than I actually will need. It's about the rest.

There are five books to take. I "made" them. I got the articles divided into the topics that will be discussed there in "books" to organize myself. The guys in Tarragona asked us to read about 2,500 pages of articles before arriving there. I may have done around 50 pages. Some of the articles I've read before, as I said. The rest, I'll be reading and understanding there.

My laptop, my cell phone (and I'll get a local chip there), money, credit cards... and most importantly, the passport! I hope I don't get too much trouble in the border control. Portugal, which is probably the place I will have to explain myself to the Immigration control, requires a previous visa if I want to study there. However, I'll just fly through Portugal, not to there. In Spain, the study visa is not required if the time of study is less than 90 days, which is the case. I hope in Portugal they are aware of that. Just in case, I'm bringing all visa requirements posted in the Consulates (the Spanish and the Portuguese) websites in Rio. Right now, my only concern is that: the Immigration procedures.

Besides that, it will be a long flight. I leave Rio at 3PM local time and arrive Lisbon 7AM local time, which means 16 hours difference minus the time zone equals to 11 hours flight. Wow! Arriving in Lisbon I will have a 2 hours window to get my flight to Barcelona, leaving at 9AM and arriving there at 12PM (there is another time zone here), adding two more hours to my flight.

Now I remembered one thing: are these miles counting in my mileage plan? I don't remember...

As soon as I arrive in Barcelona, I'll be taking a bus to Tarragona. Trains are far from the place I will stay in Tarragona and the bus leaves me one block away from the residence. And they are cheaper too. Either bus or train will take the same time (one hour) to arrive in Tarragona from Barcelona.

As "promised", there will be a reception to those arriving tomorrow plus some first explanations.

Well, I'd better go by now. I'll send you some news from Tarragona!

Cheers!

Hello!

Hi!

If you came here to know how am I, I thank you and say I'm fine. There are 10 hours before I get into the airplane to Spain.

I'll be flying by TAP, from Rio to Lisbon, and then to Barcelona. ETA in Barcelona is 11:55AM local time (6:55AM Rio time). On the 7th, my day of arrival, I'll have a quick session in the College which we will be having classes.

But you may be asking yourself: what is this all about?

When I was in College, I started to dedicate myself to the study of population movement, a.k.a. migration. My focus was the international migration, which I found to be very interesting and exciting, especially if you believe there are some rights people should not be denied anyhow. Those rights I learned to be fundamental rights for pretty much all nations, and that's why they are also called Human Rights.

My final project in College was challenging. I had two different tutors, while normally we would have only one. At the same time, I had to invite a professor from another University to be truly evaluated, as my professors did not feel confident to analyze my job. I decided to deny already stablished concepts of migration, calling attention that those theories are created to underestimate the presence and the changes the migrants cause in their place of destiny. In fact, besides studying Geography, my final project had no maps, no graphs, no tables. It was all based on theory and my guts in saying the main theory used in most of all migration studies is pointless (I said no to Ravenstein and yes to Bauman).

As my interest was in migration, I started to participate in online discussions too. In the beginning of the year I received a message that a group of scholars would develop a course in July, in the city of Tarragona. The objective of the course was declared in its name: Decolonizing Knowledge. When I read the whole prospect of the course, I felt I had to go. It won't be easy: the discussions are supposedly all philosophical, as the core of the debates are epistemological. Some of the authors we will be discussing I have read before, which helped a little. But there are so many areas of discussions that I'm going to confess I haven't finished reading it all. However, I don't believe I will be doing anything else there than studying... most of the time.

I also plan to have a weekend "break" in Madrid. It's not everyday that you can go to Spain, right?

Keep tuned here, and I'll be posting my ideas while I'm there... And let's rethink together "which way is up".

Cheers!