New Friends in the Desert

New Friends in the Desert

I’m back in Abu Dhabi for another Candidate Weekend. As I did during the November Candidate Weekend, I gave a 75-minute class on “Cosmopolitanism Now,” which resulted in a very lively discussion about the nature of cosmopolitanism and both...

Manic Monday

And not “just another” manic Monday. In fact, I can’t remember another day on which I’ve had to give three big public performances — and on different subjects to boot (though in my mind there are significant areas of overlap among them)....

NYUAD Candidate Weekend

10:00 AM Eid Mubarak! Back home it’s Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the first day of the Christmas shopping season, but here, in Abu Dhabi, it’s the Eid Holiday, which commemorates the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) to sacrifice his...

Teaching Philosophy circa 2004

Last Wednesday I participated in a panel discussion on the subject of teaching large lecture courses sponsored by NYU’s Center for Teaching Excellence. My co-panelists were Jim Matthews, who teaches psychology, and Daniel Stein, who teaches physics. Jim set...

Al Ain

The Al Mezyad Fort in Al Ain Thursday morning, we headed out to the oasis city of Al Ain, about two hours east of Abu Dhabi, near the border with Oman. There we were met by Brian, an ex-pat who heads up the Emirates Natural History Group, which is interested in both...