Workload

My PhD program in the geography department is set up so that after the first year students are meant to be done with their coursework. In an attempt to do just this I am taking four classes this term instead of the normal three, meaning that I'm staying extra busy with research papers now as this term is in its final quarter. It's always fun to see how the ideas and topics of seemingly disparate classes intersect, and I'm definitely going through that now.

In "African Ecology and Development" with political ecologist Judy Carney, author of "Black Rice: The African origins of rice cultivation in the Americas," I'm writing about biopiracy in Uganda. Biopiracy is when first world corporations, governments, and universities go into third world countries and look for plants that may be transformed into lucritive pharmecutecals. This would be great except that more often than not the nation-state from whom the plants are taken - who depend on their natural resources to operate in a global economy - are not compensated at all.

Next up, and rounding off my tour of the global south, is "Historical Geography of South America," taught by Stephen Bell, author of "Campanha Gaúcha: A Brazilian Ranching System, 1850-1920." For my paper I will be analyzing the accounts of European travelers to Argentina in the 1920s - fun topic!

My third class is in the history of science department and is called "History of Political Economy and Technology." This is the second term of a two term research seminar, so I'm trying to finish a paper for this class that if done well will be the first chapter of my dissertation. The paper is about John Kellogg (inventor of Corn Flakes) and his turn-of-the-century health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. I'm writing about how he portrayed the body - specifically the digestive system - in his writings, and how his ideas about eating healthy are related to the economic forces of the time that helped to create agricultural landscapes full of wheat and corn. The professor for this seminar, Norton Wise, is a former Institute for Advanced Studies physicist at Princeton who transformed himself in the 1980s into a historian of science. He was part of a bigger movement in the academy at that time which began to critique the power of science and its methods - critiques that have become the norm nowadays. He is a mesmerizingly clear and conceptual thinker and has a special penchant for geography and analyzing features on the landscape.

Last, but certainly not least, is a geography seminar led by my major advisor Denis Cosgrove and a humanistic geography professor named Nick Entrikin. The seminar is called "Place and Landscape," and we essentially study the history of how these foundational human geographical terms have been used by geographers in the past 50 years or so. It is one of the few, if not the only, graduate course of its kind, and is a large part of the reason I wanted to come to UCLA. For this class I am working on a theoretical paper about how "place" and "body" have overlapping as well as contradictory meanings and characteristics.

Viva la biciclette!

"The bicycle seems destined to be an important factor in setting people to thinking about great problems of modern life...the effect of the bicycle on the transportation problem - one of the greatest problems of modern society - has hardly yet been realized."

This quote was made by A.C. True, the director of the U.S. Agricultural Experiment Stations, in 1897. I came across an article he wrote about the vitality of life in the country that is relevant to my interests in how food, health, and agriculture were conceived in U.S. history, and lo and behold he started talking about bicycles!

In the last couple weeks I've participated in two incrdible bicycling events. The first one was the UCI international track championships that took place in L.A. My friend Dave Waskowski, whom I originally met in the UW-Madison geography graduate program, and who now lives in Chicago, came out for the weekend to see the races and to pay me a visit. Dave is on the organizing committee for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. He wanted to come to L.A. for fun of course, but also to see how other "low spectator" sports are organized and promoted.


The sinuosity of the Siberian pine-made track is gorgeous! At its steepest point it is a 45 degree angle, which from the top of the track (where I'm standing to take this photo) looks like straight down. The 40 mph speeds keep these guys from falling down the wall though as they're flying around the curves. They use Siberian pine because it splinters very little compared with other woods, a preventative measure which will be clear to those aware of the infamous accident where a crashed rider died from a wood splinter that punctured his lung.



Almost all the teams at the race were from Europe...here are the Italians at the beginning of their team sprint. In this event they have to do 4 laps (1 km), and the time is given to the third person to cross the line. The strategy is to have one person pound away while the others "rest" in his slipstream. Eventually the person who works the hardest quits and the other 3 then finish strong for the last 1/4 km or so.


A Spanish coach screams out the split times. "Cinco ocho dos!"


The other incredible bicycle event I experienced recently was a monthly group ride in L.A. called Midnight Ridazz. It is essentially a bunch of cyclists who meet up and ride around the city on a Friday night from about 10:00pm - 2:00am. This ride was amazing! There were an estimated 1,000 riders, by far the biggest group of bikes I've ever been in. It was so rejuvinating and peaceful and friendly...not to mention a great way to see the city.


Here we are with our home made renegade "sharrow" template, complete with spray paint. This is a great way to encourage drivers to be aware of those of us who choose not to participate in the consumpiton of fossil fuels have an equal right to the road. There are some city-approved sharrows around, but not enough...and safety can't wait!


At one of our stops on the 4th street bridge...some monkeys wanted to get a better view of what we thought was the filming of a rap music video taking place under the bridge.



The best thing about the ride - we stop at all the liquor stores and taco stands! Here is a small piece of one of our take overs of a local beer store. The custom is to get a can or 2 of beer and drink while you ride on the empty midnight streets.

If there was one thread that could unite these two seemingly separate events, it is the type of bicycle that is popular at both. The track racers use the unoriginally titled track bike, which means that it has no breaks, one gear, and the additional attribute that whenever the back wheel moves, the pedals move, and vice versa. These bikes are also known as "fixed gears." The reason they don't have breaks is actually for safety. As they ride around in circles in formation, inches away from each others' tires, one touch of the breaks could send the whole group catapaulting over the handlebars. These types of bikes have become very popular in cycling crowds of the Midnight Ridazz variety because of their purity, simplicity, light weight, and style. I saw no less than hundreds of the prettiest fixed gear bikes at the ride, and it made me want to get mine out of storage from the great north in Hayward, Wisconsin.