What are we doing here?
(Jen here) Most of you know that I got a fellowship in Berlin for the year, but I thought I'd do a post about where I'm working and what I'm doing.
I'm funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. According to an acadmeic's favorite source, Wikipedia, Alexander was "a Prussian polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science" (b. 1769 in Berlin). In some ways the fellowship is like a Fulbright in the US, as it aims to promote international academic and cultural exhange. I'm hosted as a Visiting Scholar at the WZB Berlin Social Sciences Center in the Demography and Inequality Group.
Everyone has been wonderfully welcoming at the WZB. The cafeteria is pretty good (my Italian office mates will add the qualifier, "for German food"). I'm getting good work done, without the constant chatter of admistrative and teaching duties. During my time here I'm working on a comparative project examing women's employment across North American and European countries from 1990-2015. It's more fun (to me) than it sounds.
I'm taking advantage of our very central location to attend conferences and give talks across Europe. On the schedule so far are Vilnius, Lithuania; Budapest, Hungary; Stockholm and Lund, Sweden; Rostock and Mannheim, Germany; Turin, Italy; Bath, England; Valletta, Malta; and hopefully more. I am strategically planning these events, as much as possible, around Hazel's school schedule so Garth and Hazel can come with me on these travels. Our first big work-holiday trip combines my conference in Budapest with a talk in Stockholm during Hazel's two week fall break. We'll be going Berlin-Prague-Bratislava-Budapest-Stockholm-Oslo-majestic fjords-Bergen-Berlin. We hope to survive.
I've already gone to Vilnius. I had a terrible cold, though, so these are the only pictures I took my entire time. It was lovely, though!
