Category: Toronto

Term two, week three

This is going to be a busy week.

I have a few deferred midterms to grade before teaching tomorrow’s tutorials – for which I also need to redo the readings and devise an enhanced random selection system for student presentations. I will also have office hours and a lecture which I should attend, along with a club event that may be of some interest.

Tuesday we have a 350 meeting, for which I should be working on refining our divestment PowerPoint presentation and advancing logistical preparations for the Presidents’ Day trip to Washington D.C.. I also have my ‘incomplete conquests’ class, for which three books and a chapter have been assigned (topic: the Treaty of Niagara). There is also an ‘EcoFair’ at OISE, where Toronto 350.org will have a booth.

Wednesday I have my self-deception course. We will be discussing Freud’s “The future of an illusion” and Becker’s “Human nature and the heroic; The terror of death; Human character as a vital lie”.

I have a paper due for my core PhD seminar in Canadian politics on Thursday, on the topic: “Have Canadian political scientists devoted too much attention to issues of responsible government to the detriment of analysis of other important questions about Parliament?” For this seminar, there are seven chapters of reading assigned, along with four scholarly articles.

In amongst all this, I need to work on preparing and selling prints for my camera repair fund; work on the major term papers for my Canadian politics classes; figure out a way to pay my second term tuition and Massey fees; respond to 128 emails; track down some comprehensive examinations in Canadian politics from previous years; send various thank you cards; sort notes from last term; and generally advance miscellaneous projects and discharge various obligations.

Wednesday mornings are for self-deception

Today was the first seminar of Jordan Peterson’s Self-Deception course, and it was quite something.

The man is a gifted speaker, and devoted most of the class to describing a process for writing well and the importance of doing so. The course assignment is unusual: three successive drafts on the same topic, first of three, then six, then nine pages. After each round, students are to be provided with comments.

Strictly speaking, I am not allowed to take the class (as a non-psychology student). My plan is to keep doing the readings and showing up, with the aim of writing the assignment as well. Grades and course credits don’t really matter for me at this point, so it won’t make much difference if I can ultimately convince him to let me into the course or not.

Starting winter term 2013

The winter term begins today. I am continuing with the Canadian politics PhD seminar from last term, as well as the international relations course where I am working as a teaching assistant. I am picking up a new Canadian politics course taught by Peter Russell called: “Canada in Question – a Country Founded on Incomplete Conquests“.

I am also hoping to audit Jordan Peterson’s psychology course: “Self-Deception: A Comprehensive Analysis” and perhaps continue to drop in on some of Nick Mount’s “Literature for Our Time” lectures.

Santa soliciting Shell divestment petition signatures

Today, we collected more than 200 petition signatures calling on the University of Toronto to sell their stock in Shell:

I am thoroughly appreciative to the Toronto 350.org volunteers who organized the whole event and then pulled it off today.

We will be building up our divestment campaign by seeking more signatures, including from campus groups and prominent alumni.

Both those associated with the University of Toronto and outside sympathizers are asked and encouraged to sign our petition. We are hoping to get thousands of names on it before we present it to the president of the university.

PhD status – November 2012

For tomorrow, I have hundreds of pages to read on regionalism and provinces in Canada. I also have a paper to finish and a slideshow to complete for the Massey coffeehouse. Upcoming, I have two presentations: one on climate change for my environmental politics course, and another on citizen engagement and civil society for my Canadian politics seminar. I have reading to do to prepare for tutoring on Sunday, sixty undergraduate international relations papers to grade, a divestment campaign to plan for Toronto 350.org, books to finish and review, piles of unanswered electronic and physical correspondence, and (at least theoretically) doctoral research to work on, along with two term papers.

I left the civil service largely because my time was used so badly there, with government attention rarely being devoted to matters of importance. School does still involve some trivial busy work – along with tasks that are necessary only for financial sustenance rather than intellectual advancement. Still, the ratio between time spent working on matters of importance and time spent on meaningless nonsense is a lot better as a PhD student than as a civil servant.

That said, I can’t say I am totally sure that a PhD program is an intelligent way to use five years of one’s life. The social interaction at Massey College has definitely been the best part of the doctorate so far. The continued opportunity to get to know Massey people is probably the strongest factor motivating me to continue with the degree at this point.