A NEW ACADEMIC YEAR HAS BEGUN

It hardly seems possible that I've already been back in L.A. for over a month, more like 6 weeks actually. I arrived back from Jerusalem on Sept. 7 and hit the ground running, first spending 3 weeks as part of an IT training team for 5 visiting ESL teachers from Tajikistan. They left on Oct. 2, and classes began right away. I am taking a very interesting class in Qualitative Research Methods, taught by Prof. Frederick Erickson, of the Education Dept. He is a "teacher's teacher", and the students in the class are from various disciplines, urban schooling, social work, and information studies among others. The class was over-enrolled, but with the help of my advisor and department chair, I was able to petition and get in. There is a lot of reading, all of it quite interesting, and a research project to be designed.

Next week is the official opening of the Aga-Sarkissian Diocesan Library, and the weekend of November 6-7 the UCLA Conference on Armenian Jerusalem and the Armenians in the Holy Land, where I will present a paper about the Calouste Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian Patriarchate.

For my research apprenticeship, I will be working with my advisor on the impact of the Internet on under-represented ethnic groups, specifically comparing the Chinese and Armenian diasporas. Together with two other classmates, the four of us will be presenting our research at a conference on web-based communities in Portugal next February.

So, the books and the papers continue to pile high on every empty surface in our house. Maybe I should call a home and office organizer person???