UCD campus and surroundings

-
The campus is like a large city with buildings dotted around everywhere. To find your way around it, you need a map, hence the UCD Map

There is a UC Davis Stores where people can buy textbooks, notebooks, backpacks, snacks and anything else they may need on their quest for knowledge. There is also a large Coffee shop and many areas where students site, chat, study, read and engage in learning. Ah, and, of course, there are classrooms, seminar rooms, lecture halls, large and small. Faculty have offices. I was supposed to share my office, but, as it turns out, I have an office to myself (I remember now this also happened at MIT, lucky me!). Faculty have all their books and other working material in their offices and also use them for their Office Hours, which is when they see students.  
This is a photograph of Kerr Hall, where the Department of Linguistics resides. You can't see my window because it is on the other side. 

Kerr Hall - where the Department of Linguistics can be found
     
     
     
     

Students waiting to go into a lecture
As well as the impressive campus buildings, another remarkable feature of the place can be found just outside the edges of the campus: the fraternity and sorority houses which seem to be everywhere and can be as luxurious as some of the fanciest residential houses. It is interesting to think about the ongoing debate as to whether they should be allowed to exist at all, see this, for example.
   
   


The first visit to the Shield's Library was also a bit like being on a time machine, only that now there are these options of technologically supported access to the material that did not exist before. So, a bit like Back to the Future, but the one that goes towards the future. Don't get me wrong, there were computer catalogues the last time I used a large university library, but now there are charging stations, and open access centres, and digital publications and God knows what else!


Still, the best symbol of the what the Library is all about was just outside the main door:

Sculpture outside Shield's Library

Just inside, there was a Harry Potter exhibit celebrating the 21st birthday of the wizard and including not just the books, the merchandise and other memorabilia, but the academic publications surrounding the phenomenon. Who said it was just a bunch of children's books, eh?! 











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UCD - An Eyewitness Guide

-
Image
The University of California-Davis is an amazing place. It is a research university, part of the University of California network, and has been called one of the "public-ivies" in reference to the Ivy League. Many of the students here are first generation college and the range of ethnicities and origins is simply fascinating. I haven't yet counted, but in one of the graduate seminars I am attending there must be over a dozen languages spoken by the less than 15 students attending. Among its faculty there are members of all the academics of Sciences, Arts and Humanities; recipients of awards of all kinds, including the Nobel prize and many of their schools and programmes have been ranked first in the world, for those interested in what those rankings may mean! The geographical setting of the campus is no less impressive. It is a clearly demarcated terrain (you can tell when you enter from the 'outside world', i.e. the town that has grown around it) that seem...
Read more

What Really Happened in the Library

-
Image
Public libraries are a fabulous thing. Or they can be. Here, in Davis, the public library is a gorgeous place.             Open, airy, bright, inviting, with space and spaces for everyone, with books up high for tall people and cushions and books down low for the little ones, with carpeted floors so that everyone can sit down and read, with DVDs, audiobooks, this library organises classes and get-togethers for groups, with different interests.     This is a summarised programme of activities for just one month! You can borrow puzzles or select a pack to work and play with with a group of kids. You can use computers and online catalogues and microfiche machines (do those things still exist??).         There's even traditional seating for those who prefer it.     We went to the Mary Stephens' Library today to collect our member's cards, which we had reques...
Read more

Giving talks

-
Image
On Facebook I shared a few photos of some of the talks I gave both at UC Davis, at other universities and at various conferences, but I didn't think that was the place to share my perceptions of the experience. So here go some observations. There is a mix of levels of formality and informality that contrasts to what I have experienced in other places. On the one hand, there is formality in the punctuality when people come together for these events and how they come to be silent without been told to do so. Introductions have a level of formality but are not stuffy and detached. The style of interaction also presents quite a few differences. People are much more cautious when taking turns or asking questions, there is practically no overlap of voice and there is widespread use of hedging and clarification to ensure there is no offense. Students are politely interested in what I tell them, although I can't be sure that they can fully understand the content of the presentat...
Read more