Postcolonialism, 2Pac, and the borders in our head

I had an interesting conversation last night with my former teacher in Iranian studies. We were sitting at the bank of the river Main, listening to 2pac and talking about colonialism in history and politics in the Middle West (aka Europe).

In that context, he led me read his newest article. It wasn’t edited or refined in any way but as soon as it is published, I see there is potential to write a review of that article here.

And just so you don’t set your expectations too high:
2Pac wasn’t mentioned there.

“Academia vs the public”? – Part 2 of X

An amazing essay I just finished reading tackling the issue at hand in great detail. I’ll just leave it here and let it speak for itself. My next post might be a review, adding my own experience and take on it.

I actually like this series kind of thing I am doing here. Excited for the next part myself.

“Academia vs the public”? – Part 1 of X

In our hours-long discussions, my friend Alex and I often bring up the importance of the relationship between academia and the public and how bad it is currently.

The discussions get somehow heated because there is no one to blame it on really. Is it “the mob” who are ignorant, unwilling to listen and learn something meaningful? Or is it the scientists in the notorious “ivory tower” who are not able to communicate their knowledge and make their work accessible – or meaningful at all?

As soon as we determine one factor, we see immediately that it is more complicated than that and more often than not we argue against our own statement (We are just two dudes high on maté, but we are good at steelmanning).

It’s an Hen Egg Problem, I guess. I will keep you up to date on this one.

Emil Nasritdinov

I found this blogpost about Professor Emil Nasritdinov, written by Ali Reza Yasa . I had the privilege to be a student of Mr Nasritdinov myself and the blogpost perfectly reflects my own experience with him and his teaching style.

He has an authentic and down-to-earth way of teaching. As students we felt nothing but mutual respect in our classes and the discussions were always at eye level. He is one of the academics that inspire me to follow the path of educating and sharing knowledge in a way that captures the attention and sparks interest in the topic.

I hope to meet him again and wish him all the best for the future.

What happened to The Hive?

As a lover of podcast, I wanted to produce one myself for a long time. And as announced, I actually produced three episodes but I didn’t publish them.

Working on “The Hive”, was a great experience and I’m glad I did it, but I wasn’t happy with the result and the overall presentation. I have years of acting experience but hosting a talk show is still another thing. I am probably too introverted to feel comfortable in this kind of format, i guess. I still love the idea and The Hive is still something I want to try again when I am ready for this step.

I consider this a strategic retreat to reassess the whole concept. Now I can better evaluate the applicability of certain ideas. Things that didn’t work out this time will work out next time. I am privileged to have friends who supported me in every step in the making of The Hive, from concept to editing, and with their hands-on experience and feedback.

It was a great learning experience and despite the “failure”. I look back at it proudly. This experience reminds me of an advice by filmmaker Alex Ferrari on how to become a better artist: “Fail, and fail often”.