Stanford

[chimerically]

I've decided to move to the Stanford Department of Communication next year. The decision was difficult and involved, but I think it's for the best. I am planning on keeping my Berkeley contacts alive, especially that with my current advisor, and I'll probably be back to sit in on a class or two as well (especially the one Jean Lave and Peter Lyman, though both retired, are planning for next spring). I've been doing lots of research on what classes are offered, who teaches them, and what professors and peers I could work with at both places. Danah and David helped me focus in by suggested a few pointed questions to ask myself: where can I find a community I want to work with? who will help me with the inevitable bureaucracy? where can I learn the skills I want to have? whose job would I love to have, and how do I get there? Ultimately, I know that I can't make a fully-informed decision since I haven't attended Stanford and can't possibly learn everything about it and can't know what will come up at Berkeley that I don't yet know about. Both schools have their strengths and weaknesses, and I'd very likely follow different paths at each. But all things considered, Stanford's resources in various areas put it ahead of Berkeley.

Comments

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

I'm somewhere in the space between Fred Turner and Cliff Nass, and I've been corresponding mostly with Fred. Jean Lave has also pointed me at James Ferguson, Sarah Jain, Carol Delaney, Akhil Gupta, Purnima Mankekar, Liisa Malkki, Raymond McDermott, Penelope Eckert, and Stephen Barley as other possible collaborators in anthropology and STS. So seems like lots of options! Know any of them?