I’ve said this before: industrialized animal farming involves the interlocking oppression of both humans and animals (and the environment). Congrats to the New York Times for pointing this out in today’s editorial section:
Photo: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Karin Lauria :: May.31.2008 :: Ethics :: No Comments »
Question: Are there ways to plan and write a research paper so that I’m not so stressed all the time?
Planning, writing and researching an academic project can be overwhelming. But there are ways to prepare for a large paper without succumbing to down-to-the-wire anxiety that is common among students. Below are some suggestions that are designed to help students feel in control of their project.
1) Outline
The best way to start any major project is with an outline. Having a very basic structure will be immensely helpful in executing the project from beginning to end. Your outline will change as you write and research, but having a place to begin will help you think about your project as a whole, and as individual pieces of a whole. Once you know what your project topic is (and you’ve done some very preliminary research) you should be able to create a basic outline in as little as 20 minutes. Remember, this initial outline doesn’t have to be perfect. It is simply meant to help you plan and envision your project.
2) Scheduling
Once you have an outline prepared, it’s time to pull out the calendar. Mark the start and end date of your project so you have a clearly delineated length of time in which to work. Then, using the outline you created in step 1, plug in deadlines for yourself. (My own preference is to create due dates every Friday on which a rough draft of each section from my outline is “due.”) This forces you to create bite-sized chunks of work that you can complete in a single week. Give careful thought to your own particular process. For instance, do you prefer to complete research before writing? Do you prefer to combine the process of research and writing? Do you feel the need to go in order, or would it be best to start in the middle? Don’t forget to allow time for your mentor to look at a rough draft, give yourself time for revisions, and plan ahead for unforeseen circumstances (an illness, an unexpected vacation, and the inevitable days of procrastination.) Most importantly, make the calendar extremely realistic. Give yourself more time than you’ll need for each part of the project. Be realistic about when you’ll need breaks.
3) Obstacles
Your biggest challenge as a writer/researcher is not your deadline; nor is it finding sources, compiling information, or writing. Your biggest obstacle is yourself. You will face many of your own insecurities as you work your way through this process. I call these insecurities “the demons.” Demons are the thoughts in your head that tell you you’ll fail. They tell you you’re dumb, you’re a bad writer and no one will want to read your work. The best way to combat the demons is threefold: 1) begin to think of them as entities that are separate from yourself so you can easily dismiss the destructive thoughts. 2) identify, as specifically as possible, what these demons are telling you so that you can recognize your personal demons in the future. 3) gather a toolbox of skills to fight against the demons (the calendar is a start that process. I’ll get to a few more in a moment.)
Here are some examples of demons: I have no expertise; I can’t explain things well; I’m dumb; This is going to be really bad; Who do I think I am?
Sometimes demons disguise themselves as angels. They do this by appearing to be encouraging, when in actuality, they create an environment where you feel paralyzed. Here are some examples of demons disguised as angels: Each word/sentence has to be right; This is going to be the best thing I’ve ever written; This has to be good enough to publish; I have to do something no one has ever done before.
You’ll notice that while these things may at first appear empowering, they actually put so much pressure and expectation on you that you’ll be terrified of making mistakes. That means you will have trouble finding the confidence to write.
4) The Writing Process
Here are a few skills to help combat the demons, writer’s block, and general writing anxiety.
“Keep your hand moving”
Blank pages are daunting, so force yourself to fill up the page with your words, even if your word choice, sentence structure and grammar are atrocious. You’ll fix that stuff later. For now, just get the ideas down on paper. Your demons will probably tell you that what you are writing is bad, but don’t forget that your first draft is SUPPOSED to be bad. That’s why they call it a first draft. A bad first draft is the only way you get to a good second draft and a great third draft. Keep your hand moving without judging your writing. You’ll be surprised to find that, once you clean it up in the second draft, a good portion of it will be useable.
“Follow inspiration”
Don’t feel obligated to start the beginning. Start where you feel inspired, even if that means writing the conclusion before you’ve written anything else. I often choose to write my introduction at the end. Take breaks from sections that are driving you crazy, and procrastinate by using other parts of your paper. If you don’t feel like writing, go to the library and do more research. If your brain is fried, work on the bibliography. Don’t let your calendar constrict you. Use it as a guide, but make changes when needed.
“Free write”
Pick a particular topic from your paper — one that you are stuck on, inspired by, fearful of, or curious about — and just write. Without doing any additional research, write for at least 10-15 minutes and see what comes out. You may be surprised by how much you already know, or you may go in an unexpected direction. It will also help you clarify where you need to do a bit more research. Most importantly, don’t judge your writing. Just write and see what you come up with.
“Communicate with your mentor”
Tell your mentor what you need from him or her. Don’t wait for them to tell you how to complete your project. Be clear and upfront from the beginning about how they can help you, what you expect from them and where you think you need the most guidance. If you think it will be helpful, share your calendar with them (make sure they understand it is a loose structure that is only meant to guide you.) By utilizing your mentor in this way, you will actually be teaching yourself how to be your own mentor, a skill that will be useful during future projects in school and throughout your career.
Many students feel helpless when they take on a large project. They carry free-floating anxiety when they are writing, a feeling they can’t even shake when they take breaks. They become paralyzed when they face a blank page or computer screen. But by developing a structure via your calendar, you will feel more in control, and will be able to relax when you have scheduled time to procrastinate. Further, by allowing yourself to make mistakes, to be less than perfect, and to have realistic expectations, the tasks ahead will be that much easier.
Lisa Brown :: May.26.2008 :: Student Space :: 4 Comments »
Last fall, I graduated from Boston University School of Theology with a master’s of theological studies. I was recently honored to have been chosen as the salutatorian of the class of 2008.
Below, I share with you an annotated version of the speech I gave at the school’s commencement ceremony at Marsh Chapel on Sunday, May 18.
***********
Thank you, and good afternoon everyone.
This speech represents the very last assignment I’ll receive as a student of the school of theology, and I’m excited to have been chosen to speak to you today.
Last month marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King’s.[1] As such, I feel it is both good and right to honor him by drawing from his work for the theme of my address today.[2]
Reverend King had a vision of beloved community. By this vision, people would one day recognize themselves as existing in an integrated society of brothers and sisters committed to peace and justice, and redeemed through the transformative power of love.[3]
Today, King’s vision continues to inspire others both here and abroad toward non-violent means of achieving social justice.
Great visions, however, don’t occur in a vacuum. They arise in community with others whose visions can ignite in us our own courage and passion.
King himself was inspired by another great visionary, a man named Howard Thurman. Thurman served as the Dean of this Chapel while King was a student at the School of Theology here at BU.[4]
Thurman had his own vision of community, one in which people of all faiths would connect with each other in a common ground of religious experiences.
These two visions became intertwined here at BU. They’re part of a tradition of hopefulness and imagination.
Many of us came to the School of Theology with our own visions about how we might better ourselves and, in turn, make life better for others. We’ve come from many different places in life and traveled down many different paths.
Some of us came directly from undergraduate programs. Others left jobs in search of a more meaningful way of life. Many arrived with the intention of becoming ordained, while others came to explore how they might minister to the world in a different sort of way.
When I entered the School of Theology in 2004, I was heartened by the diversity of people I met here. There are, of course, students of different races, ethnic backgrounds, faith traditions, and ages.
But I also found that our experiences of BU have been varied as well. They’ve occurred in different contexts and on different schedules.
Many of us were full-time students who continued to stay involved in a range of social justice activities. Others worked part-time jobs while tackling demanding academic work loads, and maintaining close ties with our churches.
Some went straight through their programs without a break. Others took time off to tend to ailing family members, to earn money to pay the bills, or just to breath. Each of us has our own story.
King knew that achieving the beloved community involves a diversity of people, with a variety of life experiences and sometimes conflicting ideas. We here at BU haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. We’ve had our struggles and heated disagreements.
But on balance, we’ve been blessed in many ways—with new friendships, with a caring administrative staff, and with an amazing faculty of professors.
We’ve been enriched by new members, and diminished by the loss of others, such as our dear professor Simon Parker, who we sadly miss.[5]
Along the way, we’ve inspired and challenged each other to think more critically about what we presume to be absolute and true. We’ve perceived the plank in our own eye, and in doing so have learned to see ourselves and others more clearly.[6]
There are those who say that love is an unlimited resource. That there is enough love in the world to help everyone. A cynic might respond to this by saying, “Yes, but time is limited. Therefore, some must take priority, even if others are left behind.”[7]
I hope you don’t know anyone like that. But if you do, you might ask them, “how much time does it take to put your hand on someone’s shoulder and say ‘Great job. You’re making a difference.’”
Showing support often requires only a generous spirit towards those who’ve heard the divine call to minister to the world in their own distinct ways. Community must be built in different places, by different people, with different visions.[8]
The beloved community then, is about unity in difference. It’s about individual, embodied spirits who share a common commitment to achieving the peace of God which transcends all understanding.[9]
St Francis reminds us too that the beloved community need not be restricted to humans, but is a mixture of people, animals, and the natural world [10]. God’s blessings are more beautiful and diverse than we can ever know.
We need each other just for a glimpse.
When you leave here today, take a moment to step out into the plaza, and stop at the monument to Martin Luther King.[11] Think about the way you’re called to build the beloved community, and about all those who have inspired and supported you. May you, in turn, inspire and support others in pursuing their visions.
Say thanks to our merciful God that you are privileged to stand in a long tradition of unity, common ground, shared dreams, and hope.
God bless you all. I’m honored to be part of this community.
Thank you.
______________________________________________
1. King was assassinated April 4th, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee. He was there to support striking sanitation workers.
2. A special thanks to Steve Chase, Director of Antioch University New England’s Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program. It was his enthusiasm for King’s legacy, and especially for King’s vision of the beloved community, that inspired the theme of my speech. Steve recently wrote for this blog a great essay about Martin Luther King. You can read it here: “The Dream Reborn.”
3. The King Center website provides a nice introduction to the concept of the Beloved Community.
4. King received his Ph.D. from Boston University on June 5, 1955. Thurman was the first African American Dean of Marsh Chapel and a mentor to King. See Religion and Ethics News weekly for a great feature about the life and thought of Howard Thurman.
5. Simon Parker was a professor of Hebrew Bible studies who began teaching at BU in 1981. He passed away on April 29, 2006.
6. See Matthew 7:3–5.
7. Here I’m alluding to Mary Midgley’s argument that compassion is not a “rare and irreplaceable fluid” that must be reserved for humans to the exclusion of animals (I substituted the word ‘compassion’ with ‘love’). Instead, it is a “habit or power of the mind, which grows or develops with use” (see Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter, p. 31). I’ve read and heard more times than I care to remember variations on the uncharitable and morally hollow response referenced above.
8. This is a quote from professor Norm Faramelli, a highly respected lecturer of ethics at the BU School of Theology and other Boston-area seminaries. Norm generously offered his time to help me brainstorm ideas for this speech.
9. See Philippians 4:7.
10. For more on the concept of the mixed community of people, animals, and nature, see Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter, chapter 10.
11. A beautiful sculpture, Free at Last, erected in honor of Martin Luther King, stands in the plaza in front of Marsh Chapel. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/491106232/ for more information.
Photo: Martin Luther King, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Karin Lauria :: May.21.2008 :: Ethics, Religion :: No Comments »
Question: Are there tips for managing email when in college or university?
The email accounts provided by colleges and universities are for your use while you are in school. This is the official address to which most professors and the school will send email. You can recognize this email address by the suffix ‘.edu’.
You have two basic choices regarding your educational email account. First, you can use it as your primary account to conduct all your business and communications. Second, you can use this account for school purposes only, and use a personal account for non-school activities.
Please note that except in the largest or richest of institutions, once you complete school, your educational account is closed. Relying on your educational account can often lead to significant loss of information if its cancelation catches you unaware. At some point, and often at an inconvenient time and with little notice, your address and stored mail will be purged.
It is for the above reason that I recommend the second choice — using both educational and personal email accounts.
Using multiple accounts can seem like additional work. If you have more than two or three accounts to check, that may be true. Still, there are solutions that take but a few extra steps. Use the one that works best for you.
If you are using webmail only, take the following steps.
1. Be sure you have a working personal email account. These can be free (e.g. gmail.com) or for a fee (e.g. mail.com).
2. Set your educational account to automatically transfer messages to your personal account.
3. If you have them, transfer your previous emails from your educational account to your personal account.
Hint: The downside to this option is that when you send mail, you will not be using your educational address. Some institutions may block email whose send and reply address are not the same.
To solves the downside noted above, use an email client (e.g. Eudora, Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird), simply take the following steps.
1. Set up an account profile on your email client for each of your email accounts.
2. Use your email client to receive, access and store your email on your computer.
3. Use your email client to upload email using your educational or personal account.
Hint: You will need your username, password, pop and stmp server address to set up these profiles. If you want to maintain maximum flexibility and access, use a email client like Eudora, Mail or Thunderbird.
For technical support on how to do all this, please contact your service provider.
For example: I have my own web space, the domain www.practicalethics.net. This allows me to have my own professional email address. I set up my educational account to automatically transfer messages to my practical ethics account. That way when I download my email into Mail (OSX), or view it via the web, it is all in one place. Nor can it be accessed or erased by a third party. And because I use Time-Machine with Time-Capsule (OSX), my mail is automatically backed up every hour, every day, every week, every month. So when my drive recently died, I was able to recover all my mail going back to 1997!
I wish I had read something like this before the University of Minnesota erased my .edu account. And I hope this column helps you manage your email both during and after school.
Cheers, Bill
William Lynn :: May.19.2008 :: Student Space :: 2 Comments »
Question: What is the point of course evaluations?
When students and professors really care about education and educating, course evaluations can be very helpful.
The most obvious advantage is identifying elements of a course to keep, jettison or improve upon. As importantly, course evaluations are an opportunity for students and professors to dialogue about the meaning and significance of education. Course evaluations can help a department or program monitor its quality, and identify areas needing collective improvement. Sometimes evaluations are a flag that alerts the community to a professor in personal difficulty, making it possible to intervene in helpful and respectful ways.
Speaking for myself, I take course evaluations very seriously. I use student comments to triangulate on improvements to syllabi, assignments and tests. As a matter of best practice, I do this in every course each and every year. I also expressly designed my evaluations to elicit a range of quantitative and qualitative data that is germane to each course.
The topics I am especially interested in student’s reflecting upon are listed below. I suggest that they dig out the syllabus to remind themselves of the course’s intentions and content. This helps them write as specific and relevant feedback as possible.
When my students fill out course evaluations completely and seriously, it is of substantial help to me and to future students. So a big thank you to those who take the time to do so!
If course evaluations can be so helpful, why then are many faculty and students cynical about them? To understand why, some straight talk about academic politics is in order.
Studies show there can be a direct correlation between a student’s evaluation’s of a course or professor, and their anticipated grade irrespective of the effort they put forth in the course. This situation is exacerbated by the increasing commodification of education. When higher education is approached as a commodity to be bought, it minimizes student’s participation in their own learning, and detracts from education as an apprenticeship to knowledge, a prerequisite for informed citizenship, and a forge of character.
Administrators frequently talk-up evaluations as a mechanism of quality control exemplifying an institution’s undying commitment to teaching. A rather odd claim given that there are few rewards in many of these same institutions for teaching well. The reality is that many professors are evaluated primarily (often solely) in terms of the scholarship they produce. If they take time away from producing the next research article to teach or advise well, they pay a price in job security or compensation.
For example, I once worked at an institution where all professors were ranked according to their teaching quality. This was determined by an absurdly short and irrelevant questionnaire in what amounted to a popularity contest. Unfortunately, it had dire results — the lowest ranking professors were fired. Not surprisingly, this approach drove down the quality of teaching. Students figured this out rather quickly, and would punish faculty for hard courses or low grades. And you can imagine what other professors thought when it came time to assign challenging reading, assignments or tests in our courses.
Even so, from what I have seen the vast majority of professors simply do their best, even in the face of difficult circumstances. There are also many institutions where teaching is prized. In my own experience, Green Mountain College and Vassar College stand out in this respect. These institutions have excellent faculty, along with administrators and institutional incentives that support them. In a similar vein, my students at Tufts have been especially wonderful — striving for their personal best and excelling in the face of rigourous demands. As you can see, I have been fortunate to work with great colleagues and students.
What then is the take-home message? I think the task for faculty and students is to approach course evaluations with mutual respect and responsibility. An open mind on the part of faculty, and fair contributions on the part of students, can together take us a long way.
Cheers, Bill
William Lynn :: May.05.2008 :: Student Space :: No Comments »
I am starting a new series of columns entitled Student Space.
Each year I answer hundreds if not thousands of emails. Many are from students who have pragmatic questions about coursework, computing, applying for a masters or doctoral program, finding a job after graduation, etc. Other questions are about additional readings, online resources, the nature of environmental studies or geography or human-animal studies, or distinctions about important terms like moral value and geocentrism.
When students write me, I ask that they treat their email as an open letter read in public. This way no one is surprised or hurt when I forward my response to an entire group. I forward my responses to others because they are likely to have similar or related queries, and a broader conversation is of benefit to everyone.
Even so, over the years students have asked me to put these thoughts into a ‘handbook’ where my advice is easily accessed. A column series on Ethos seems like the most accessible place to do this!
I hope that over time other faculty and students will contribute editorials to Student Space. If you would like to write for or comment on this series, please be in contact. Guidelines can be found on the editorial and column pages of this blog.
Remember, your advice and experience is welcome on Ethos.
cheers, Bill
William Lynn :: May.05.2008 :: Student Space :: No Comments »
One person I have yet to introduce is David Lavigne, a long-time advisor to Practical Ethics, and now a columnist on Ethos. His remarkably impressive biography is below. Please join me in welcoming David to Ethos!
cheers, Bill
~
David Lavigne, PhD
Senior Science Advisor
International Fund for Animal Welfare
1474 Gordon Street
Guelph, Ontario
Canada N1L 1C8
519.767.1948
dlavigne@ifaw.org
http://www.ifaw.org/
David Lavigne is science advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). From 1973-1996, he was a professor in the Department of Zoology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. After receiving his BSc in Zoology from the University of Western Ontario in 1968, he taught high school for one year before entering graduate school at the University of Guelph, completing an MSc in 1972 and a PhD in 1974, both for work on vision in seals. Remaining at Guelph as a faculty member, his research interests shifted to problems of censusing harp seals to estimate annual pup production and population size. By 1975, the focus of his research was pinniped bioenergetics. For the latter work he earned a Dr philos degree from the University of Oslo in 1988. In 1990, he became executive director of the International Marine Mammal Association (IMMA), a not-for-profit organization concerned with the global conservation of marine mammals. Currently, his major interests are in the areas of conservation biology, wildlife management, and natural resources policy.
During his years at the University of Guelph, David taught numerous undergraduate and graduate courses including mammalogy, ecology and marine biology, wildlife conservation and management, and natural resources policy. The author of more than 100 papers and technical reports on various aspects of marine mammal biology, wildlife management, and conservation, he is also, co-editor (with J. Beddington and R.J.H. Beverton) of Marine Mammals and Fisheries (George Allen & Unwin, 1985), and co-author (with W.M. Johnston) of The Mediterranean Monk Seal: Conservation Guidelines (IMMA, 1998) and Monk Seals in Antiquity (The Netherlands Commission for International Nature Protection, 1999). From 1988-1992, he served on the editorial advisory board of the Canadian Journal of Zoology.
In addition to his published papers on various aspects of the biology and conservation of harp (and other) seals, he is also the co-author of Harps & Hoods: Ice-breeding Seals of the Northwest Atlantic (University of Waterloo Press, 1988). In the mid-1980s, his laboratory at the University of Guelph submitted a number of briefs to Canada’s Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing and he appeared before the Commission as an expert witness on two occasions. He has also testified as an expert witness before Canada’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (SCOFO), in 1999 and again in 2006. He has made a number of submissions to the Canadian government’s Regulatory Review Process regarding changes to Canada’s Marine Mammal Regulations, and to the Eminent Panel on Seal Management, appointed by the Canadian Government to review Canada’s commercial seal hunt, which reported in 2001. In 1999, 2000, and 2006, he was an invited participant in meetings of the Canadian government’s National Marine Mammal Review Committee.
Over the years, David has been a member of a number of international scientific committees, including: the Seal Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN); the Pinniped-Fishery Interaction Task Force on the Sea Lion/Steelhead Conflict at the Ballard Locks, Seattle; the International Scientific Advisory Committee to the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Mediterranean Monk Seal (HSSPMS, now MOm), the Scientific Advisory Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Marine Mammals Action Plan; and the European Commission/IUCN Steering Committee for the ‘Spanish Monk Seal Project’. He has also appeared before European parliamentary committees on a number of occasions and, in 2005, he testified in the Council of Europe and in the Belgian parliament when both bodies were conducting hearings into animal welfare and other aspects of Canada’s commercial seal hunt. In 2007, he served as a member of the European Food Safety Authority’s Working Group on the Animal Welfare Aspects of Sealing.
In 2001, he presented the invited keynote address – Marine mammals and fisheries: The role of science in the culling debate – at the Southern Hemisphere Marine Mammal Conference 2001, Philip Island, Victoria, Australia. He also was an invited speaker in the University of Guelph’s 2001 The Kenneth Hammond Lectures on Environment, Energy and Resources, entitled “Sustainable Development: Mandate or Mantra.” His lecture, “Ecological footprints, doublespeak, and the evolution of the Machiavellian mind” was broadcast on CBC Radio’s Ideas in May 2002. In January 2003, he spent a week at the University of Alberta, Edmonton as a “Distinguished Visitor” in the Environmental Research and Studies Centre. He was an invited participant in a consultation on future directions of marine mammal research, organized by the United States Marine Mammal Commission, in collaboration with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which was held in Portland, Oregon, in August 2003. Later that year, he delivered the invited closing lecture to the World Wolf Congress 2003, held in Banff, Alberta. In 2004, he presented invited lectures at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle (on the role of science in the formulation of public policy), and at the annual meeting of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) in Guelph (on reducing the agricultural eco-footprint). On behalf of IFAW, he organized an international forum entitled “Wildlife Conservation: In Pursuit of Ecological Sustainability” at the University of Limerick, Ireland, in June 2004. He also edited the book arising from that conference: Gaining Ground: In Pursuit of Ecological Sustainability (IFAW and the University of Limerick, 2006).
William Lynn :: May.03.2008 :: Environmental Studies, Ethics, Human-Animal Studies, Wildlife :: No Comments »