Wednesday, October 19

I had five straight hours of class today: the core seminar from 11:00am to 1:00pm, a seminar on the changing character of war between 1:00pm and 2:00pm, and then our quantitative methods lecture from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. Above all, it was the fine company of my fellow M.Phils that made the whole length of it pleasant. In particular, I appreciated the company of the St. Antony's group, which includes Emily and Roham¹.

This morning, on the way to the seminar, I was delighted to find a letter from Meghan Mathieson in my pigeon hole. It's the first piece of physical matter transferred to me in Oxford by a friend of mine. The letter was sealed with the wax and stamp which she bought in my company in Italy and it included a small bag of the tea I've made such frequent reference to drinking with her and Tristan back in Fairview. It's good to hear about how her new job is going, how her family is doing, and the holiday festivities they had with Matt's family. Receiving a handwritten letter is always a special event, despite the frequency with which I communicate with friends by electronic means. There is an undeniable romanticism to it, as well as a sense of permanence that can be both thrilling and daunting. I shall be sure to respond in kind once I get my hands on some loose leaf paper.

The core seminar discussion seemed more accessible and productive this week. The topics under examination were Wilson, the Paris peace settlements, and the Middle East. Emily ended up presenting on our topic, and can now savour the knowledge that she will not have to present again for the next five weeks. Since there are eight weeks in the term and seven people being assigned each question, it seems the last week will be another open contest. For next week, I need to read about whether the Dawes Plan and Locarno Pact offered only the illusion of peace, or whether they represented a re-emergence of a concert of the great powers. I have a general recollection from Gossen's History 432 class of what Locarno was, though I can't remember a thing about the Dawes Plan. Some research is clearly in order.

After the core seminar, we immediately headed upstairs to one of the lunchtime seminars being put on by the Changing Character of War Program. Today's was on the changing character of war crimes and it seemed to be universally considered less than entirely compelling or useful. The speaker was unforgivably vague in a number of areas and generally failed to interrogate his own theoretical grounding, or even make clear what exactly he was trying to do. That said, the free sandwiches were much appreciated.

Today's quantitative measures lecture was a big improvement over last week's. While several concepts were still defined in unnecessarily vague and wooly terms and some of the maths were sprung out abruptly rather than decently explained, it managed to convey some essential ideas about sampling, bias, distributions, and the like. For those who would want to actually use much of this information, the class is absolutely tearing forward. Our two hour lecture next week is meant to finish up sampling distributions and cover the whole idea of hypothesis testing. I wouldn't expect a non-genius without prior statistical experience to have a very good idea of the specifics of what is being taught, unless they are doing a good bit of outside reading and practice. The first statistics course I took at UBC covered this stuff over a few weeks worth of one hour lectures, with plenty of hands on activities.

After the last lecture, I walked with the St. Antony's group to their college. As we turned from Manor Road onto St. Cross Road, I was quite surprised to see Evren walking up the road. Many of you may remember him as my first roommate at UBC as an undergraduate. We shared a two-bed room in Totem Park from September of 2001 until he moved out of residence early the next year. As you can tell from me not knowing his last name, we were not particularly close. All this was back during the time when Sarah Johnston lived in Totem, as did Lindi. I appreciatively recall her treating me, on some nights, to lovely renditions of Pachelbel's Canon in D on the piano. Having run into his friend Guillaume in Montreal twice now, I was quite startled to find Evren in Oxford, apparently working on an M.Phil in Economics (like Margaret).

In anticipation of the next two batches of scholarship applications, I printed thirty passport sized photos today. Due to the odd pricing system at the photo shop on Cornmarket street, thirty cost the same amount as five would have, and they were finished more quickly as well. I've used twenty-two of these little photos in Oxford so far, and I need six more just for the Commonwealth Scholarship application. Having thought about it more than was really worthwhile, I maintain that there is no legitimate reason for which a scholarship committee should request photographs. It can only contribute to bias.

The Domestic Bursar has given me a three-day extension, until the 21st, to pay my battels. It seems extremely unlikely that it will happen by then, as I only mailed the authorization yesterday and, even once the electronic transfer occurs, the bank will hold it for some unspecified period of time before being willing to release it. I am now very close to having completed the lengthiest screening for money laundering risk that a reasonable person could be asked by a bank to endure. To celebrate, the bank sent me a fake bank card (I am not joking) and instructions that I should walk over to my home branch to get a real one. Astonishingly, the Bank of Montreal tells me that the issue of whether or not to transfer money internationally "is at the sole discretion of the branch." No, no - I don't think we're going to let you withdraw money from your account right now. You see, we've grown rather fond of it.

After making dinner and running errands (including the purchase of a French press and coffee), I went to meet some IR students at The Eagle and Child: the pub that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien used to frequent. I arrived about twenty minutes after Anna advised us to and, despite two thorough sweeps, found it to be as devoid of IR M.Phil students as the web forum I have been trying to cajole them into using. It was the first time in Oxford when I've wished I had a cell phone. Wherever they wandered to or ended up, I hope they had a good time. It was probably befitting of a graduate student to spend the evening reading Hedley Bull, anyhow. After spending C$56.00 today on a coffee press, quarter kilo of coffee, and set of photographs, it's probably a better idea for my finances as well.

Tomorrow, I am invited to make another foray into the Oxford library system with Emily. It will be good to get my hands on some of the required books before everyone else descends upon them. Helpfully, they have now scheduled the two seminar groups to cover different topics in different weeks. The Social Sciences Library is definitely the best resource, in terms of materials available, though my fondness for the Codrington as a place in which to read continues to grow.

On Thursday, Emily has invited me to come to dinner at St. Antony's. Speaking of that elegant and animated young woman: when introducing someone on the blog, I've learned to be cautious in how much I say about them. It can be quite hard to anticipate how people will respond to having information about them splashed about in the wilds of the internet. Emboldened by her comments on the matter today, I feel at liberty to disclose a little more.

I've found that one of the more interesting things about Canadians introducing themselves in Oxford is what part of the country, if any, they initially describe themselves as being from. Some refer to specific cities, others to provinces, others to regions. My standard answer is 'western Canada.' From what I have heard, Emily doesn't seem to identify exclusively with one region of Canada or another, though she has spent a lot of time in British Columbia. It must be interesting to have such peripatetic parents as hers, not to mention a pair of artists for forebears. Emily herself I know fairly little about, though I appreciate the vitality which she projects. To write more now risks misrepresenting her, and embarrassing myself, through speculation.

Emily suggested, as we were walking into our quantitative methods lecture, that I ought to sell editing services to undergraduates, as opposed to being experimented on for small amounts of cash. Having worked for the history, political science, and international relations journals at UBC, as well as having looked over dozens of essays for friends, I suppose it's something I could do fairly well. My concerns would be, firstly, the negative association that exists with regards to "essay editors" at university. Some, it cannot be denied, are little more than plagiarism assistants. Secondly, I worry about the amount of time such work might take up. It's one thing to look over a paper for Emily which is based on readings I have generally done, a topic which I am in the process of examining, and an area that I will have to discuss in the future. It's rather another to be thrown into some unfamiliar discipline. Still, it bears consideration as a possibility - especially during the vacations between terms. Coming up on my first monthly financial analysis, it is evident that a few extra Pounds would not hurt at all.

Aside from library explorations with Emily tomorrow, I am meeting Dr. Hurrell at four, before which I should definitely review my paper and perhaps a few of the key readings which I make reference to in it. It seems a bit odd to me how nervous people become about meeting their supervisors. After all, these people have seen phalanx after phalanx of graduate students march nervously past them. Getting agitated about interacting with them seems like a mechanism for diminishing a collegial spirit and the development of an effective and equitable relationship.

Immediately after meeting him, I am to meet with Margaret, which I am sure will be both pleasant and interesting. It seems that she may be taking up an offer to teach in South Africa during the period between the two years of the M.Phil. The idea reminds me that I really need to make an effort to find a decent job for myself during that period. Minimum wage, service sector toil is no longer an acceptable option.

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[1] I am guessing that his GMail username is a more accurate spelling of his name than the one on our class list. (On a related note, I was amused today to find a piece of mail that butchered not my name, but that of the college. Mail from a bank in Oxford.)

Posted by Milan at 12:01 AM