Posts Tagged NYU
Archive
January 28, 2010 by Cyrus Patell
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). 9:30 a.m. — First up, a Writing New York lecture on on E. [...]Archive
November 27, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
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 son Ismail for God”s sake. Despite the fact that I hate traveling over [...]Archive
November 6, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
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 forth a series of generally applicable principles of good lecturing; Dan spoke about the special challenges [...]Archive
October 23, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
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 the archeology and [...]Archive
October 22, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
NYUAD Institute Talk
By all accounts, the lecture that I gave for the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute on Wednesday night went well. The title of the talk was “Cosmopolitanism, Multiculturalism, and the Promise of Literature.” Like Joanna’s lecture on the Silk Road, it took place at the Al Mamoura Auditorium in the building that houses the Abu Dhabi [...]Archive
October 21, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Grand Mosque
Grand Zayed Mosque (Interior Courtyard) Wednesday morning began with a visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which is open to non-Muslim visitors in the morning from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Gleaming white and dominating its surroundings, it’s meant, I think, to evoke both the grand mosques of the world and the Taj Mahal : [...]Archive
October 21, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Dubai
After spending an hour-and-a-half at the Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah, we continued on our way back to Abu Dhabi via Dubai. We could see examples of traditional wooden ships–the dhow–docked along the waterfront. Out of the window I caught a glimpse of a grassy area by the corniche in which red flowers had [...]Archive
October 20, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Sharjah
Sharjah, which is right next to Dubai, is more conservative than its neighbor. No alcohol is served in the emirate, which was named the cultural capital of the Arab world by UNESCO because of its excellent museums. The American University of Sharjah there was founded by the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Sultan bin Mohamed Al-Qassimi III, [...]Archive
October 20, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
