2007

I was back in school today for a staff meeting and got to say a few words, over cheese and a glass of wine, to our new Cambridge English graduate-principal about how to stop RGS girls from defecting to Hwa Chong Humanz (like she did way back when). Initial impressions of her are very positive: I just wonder if she has enough clout to keep me from the MOE's clutches come the end of 2009. Jamie and I then moaned about the poor quality of the Football Channel and John Burridge's bad dress sense. Found out that I'll be a CT next year -- though not of 08A01C, but (probably) a J1 Humanz class. This promises to be fascinating, though the workload is going to go through the roof. Thank goodness my lecture notes for Term 1 are all but done; their imminent completion will mark the first time ever that I've accomplished what I've set out to do in the holidays. I remember trying to do thesis research here in the spring and summer of 2003, and failing completely.

I haven't read that many books this year as the previous two years, unless you count the stuff I read for school (some of which, like the ones on economic development that I read over the past month, are ridiculously boring and arcane). I also haven't kept a list of readings; my notebook records only four, the last being Imagined Communities in June, and the others being John Lewis Gaddis's general history of the Cold War, his Landscape of History, and The Lost World. I've managed a couple since then, of course, the last two being Niall Ferguson's Empire and The Scarlet Letter (both of which I managed to take copious notes on). I also read The Last Days of the Renaissance, The Israel Lobby, God is Not Great, The Modern Researcher, Forgotten Wars, and 3/4 of Indonesian Destinies and The American University. I probably attempted half a dozen others but never really got stuck into them.

Next year, as usual, I will aim to finish more books than I buy, but I have already gotten off to a poor start by ordering In Command of History, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, and The Wilsonian Moment. The last two, both written by Harvard History professors, ought to make for some fascinating comparisons. Right now, I can't see beyond Harvard for graduate school: Ferguson, Jasanoff, Manela, Armitage, and Meier are as formidable lineup as any.

Books aside, 2007 was the year that I got my first proper job. That's about it really. RJC is an amazing place to be, and I'm so glad I'm not going to be a career civil servant.
Posted by kungfuzi at 7:48 pm |