Miguel Angel Chavez
Historian of Science, Exploration, and Empire
prolegomena - musings on history, current events, pedagogy, maps, & art
My non-academic/more-pundity writings will be found here. Not all topics will be pertinent to academia. Included are various posts from a previous iteration of this website. Not all posts are included here, but are found in this file if you are so curious to explore:
Posts
2024-07-15
2021-05-13
2021-05-07
2019-11-09
2019-07-20
2019-02-17
2019-02-16
2017-05-08
2016-12-16
2016-03-09
2015-08-02
2015-06-21
2015-07-18
2013-02-20
2011-11-18
2021-05-13
2021-05-07
2019-11-09
2019-07-20
2019-02-17
2019-02-16
2017-05-08
2016-12-16
2016-03-09
2015-08-02
2015-06-21
2015-07-18
2013-02-20
2011-11-18
15 July 2024
John Hanning Speke, “Kisanga, View of the Blue Mountains South 20’ East” (1858).
Courtesy from the Royal Geographical Societylessons for a teaching assistant
13 May 2021The semester has ended, and so has my year as a teaching assistant. Unlike my prior stint as a teaching assistant, I did not serve as just a grader, but led discussion sections on top of meeting with students, reading student drafts, and the usual grading. And unlike my prior stint, this was done during the mist of the COVID-induced move of higher education to Zoom. It was an interesting set of circumstances. But I am overall proud of my work and the results. I took away a few things I thought were worth sharing.
compassion costs nothing
There is a kind of instructor whose conduct becomes infamous on campus. Whose commitment for the rules border on extreme. Whose sympathy for students is below zero. And whose view of the world is one of jaded cynicism towards their students. Instead of instructors, they see themselves as gate keepers; their students see them as vindictive bullies.
I can say I have never experienced this sort of instructor first-hand through my collegiate career. But on Reddit, on professor-rating websites, and on Twitter, such instructors gain infamy as students vent their frustrations. When their infamy grows to an absurd level, these instructors are even subject to news coverage by national and international media.
During my time as a teaching assistant - and before coming to Vanderbilt, as an adjunct instructor - I have just grown to dislike those type of instructors. Why become a teacher if one is going to view their students antagonistically?
For my part, I would like to think I have become more empathetic given my experience as an instructor/teaching assistant. It’s easy to become wrapped up in one’s duties: but it’s important to know that for the students, the course is one of many aspect of their lives. This is doubly so in the context of COVID-19, when semesters are truncated and the challenges of distanced learning and isolation increasingly grates on the student’s psyche. Something has to give, so why not us as instructors?
That is to say, why should we be sticklers for hard deadlines given the students are under so much stress? To give one example, the course I TA’d for had an overarching project in which the students had to write a series of papers on the same topic. When it came time to submit papers, I received an unprecedented number of extension requests. Ultimately, I spoke with the professor and we agreed to waive the late penalty for this assignment. I think the students appreciated that gesture.
These decisions cost nothing. Allowing students to turn in assignments late costs nothing. Giving them leeway to complete their assignments costs nothing. So why is it so hard for many instructors to be compassionate and merciful?
There are fears that such compassion are detrimental to the “rigour” of academic learning; that in giving students breathing room, one is debasing academia via grade inflation. But as this professor points out, that sentiment is just hogwash:
I agree wholeheartedly. We should not fetishize an ideal of academic rigour if it comes at the expense of student well-being. Besides, this gets to the question of why we teach: is it to weed out students or to create an environment where students are able to learn the material and concepts we want to teach them? It’s unfortunate that a lot of incentives for instructors are geared towards a sociopathic stance on students, such as the charge of “grade inflation” when it comes to determining if one should receive tenure.
This is not to say that I am against having high standards for academic work or that I am devaluing student excellence. Only that a stringent adherence to deadlines and procedure is not synonymous with the promotion of such excellence. If anything, compassion on the part of the instructor is conducive to student creativity and curiosity.
zoom is good!
Like many instructors, this past year was my first foray into distanced, online learning. While there are many things I miss about in-person instruction, such as the intangible benefits of body language when leading a class discussion, I will say that I’ve come to like Zoom at the end of this experience.
There are the benefits of reducing commuting to-and-from campus; as someone who lives a dozen or so miles from Vanderbilt, the ability to log into Zoom to lead class has been liberating and cost-effective.
But more important are the pedagogical benefits to Zoom. A clear example is with the flexibility of office hours that video chatting offers. In an in-person context, I would need to be on campus at a certain period of time and find a space in which to discuss things with students. But I would never be available to all students as many would be in other classes or busy with extracurricular activities when I set my in-person office hours.
But with Zoom, I can be flexible in speaking with students as I’m already at my desk at my dinky apartment. This proved especially helpful in two contexts. The first is with inclement weather. Earlier this year, there was a large snow storm that made travel impossible for many people. No matter, I was able to speak with several students over Zoom about their questions about the readings and their assignments. The second context concerns international students. As a result of COVID-19, I had students forced to do their studies in China because they could not travel to the United States. With Zoom, I was able to speak with the students in the evening (their morning), which proved to be fruitful.
keep it simple
Sticking with Zoom, I’ve been impressed at the creative ways in which instructors have navigated both the advantages and weakness of the platform. I, on the other hand, am not creative 😵 As such, when deciding how to format my discussion section, I kept it simple: it was an open forum where I would ask questions in order to facilitate a conversation over the course reading. No break out rooms, no gimmicks: just talk.
Part of the reason is that I observed that many students, while appreciative of the benefits of the technology, were also frustrated by aspects they found to be gimmicky. Breakout rooms, a favored technique by many of the TAs I followed on Twitter, were not a hit with students. As this collection of memes highlights, there is a lot of disdain for breakout rooms among undergraduates. This meme sums up the sentiment.
"And now we’re going to go into Breakout rooms" pic.twitter.com/gzqKYmamBT
— Sam Crawford (@samcrawford99) October 12, 2020
This isn’t to say that breakout rooms are always bad. For example, the instructor I worked with this semester had the students fill out a Google Docs sheet with their thinking about a short reading done during the lecture session. That’s clever as it allows students in a breakout room to see what other students are talking about. Instead of being siloed into a single group, a connection is maintained with the rest of the class. I’m totally stealing this for when I’m designing my next remote-learning course 😆
But I will admit I have an aversion to do this for the discussion section. Part of this was my own conception of responsibility to the course: I only had 50 minutes to speak with both sections so why was I going to abdicate that time with my students? While I understand why professors - who also give lectures - may rely on breakout rooms for a much needed respite, I am not as sympathetic with TAs who only have the discussion section to worry about. And because I know my limitations, I think a simple discussion format was the best way forward. While there was an imbalance in terms of activity levels between my two sections for both semesters, I think it worked out in the end.
clarity is golden
Students hate ambiguity, especially when their grades are on the line. This is something I had to learn the hard way from my days as an adjunct. It created a situation where students would often ask me to reconsider certain grades as I was ambiguous with how I graded their papers. I eventually learned that I needed to have readily-available rubrics in order to make clear my expectations regarding their course work. This seems obvious in hindsight. However, this was my first time teaching so I learnt this obvious point on the fly.
With this in mind, having rubrics proved essential for a teaching assistant. I was fortunate to work with another teaching assistant during the Fall 2020 semester. Early on, we both decided we had to craft a rubric when grading the papers as 1. the professor did not provide one and 2. that there would be a consistent rubric for each half of the class. We spent an hour making our own, bringing our experiences together to craft a unified rubric. And it worked really well! I made it a point to post the rubric on my section’s Brightspace page and to reference it whenever I gave my grading comments. I did not get a single student pushing back against their grades because the rubric was comprehensive and comprehensible. Clarity here paid dividends.
spring break is necessary
Vanderbilt decided to accelerate the Spring semester by jettisoning Spring Break. In hindsight, this was a stupid decision. Epidemiologically, it made sense: there were numerous examples of off-campus get-togethers and vacations contributing to on-campus outbreaks of COVID-19. But the students needed a break! It proved disastrous as students were running on fumes by the end of the semester.
keep your cool
There were times when it was clear that no one did the discussion readings. It’s understandable why a TA may snap at the students on this point. But when I got frustrated, I thought of my own undergraduate experience; of how many times I skipped a reading and just winged it the best I could. Like I said earlier, the course I TA’d for is one of many classes the students are taking. There is always going to be a prioritization of certain courses by students, and this changes depending on when major assignments are due.
When I had my first experience with a silent group of students, I had a hard time not taking it personally. But, over time, I realized that such silences were not the result of a moral failure in my part: instead, the students were trying their best and juggled multiple courses to the point of feeling overwhelmed. This became evident as different sections exhibited different levels of engagement with the same material. It will just be the case that some groups will be more active than others, and that’s outside one’s control.
It’s frustrating, no doubt. We’ve all been there. It happens even with the best of instructors. Adjust if need be, but such silent moments are not a judgement of you as a person. It’ll be fine 🙂
the students are great
Lastly, my biggest takeaway from this past year as a TA was being in awe of the tenacity and brilliance of my students. They persevered despite the challenges of distanced-learning and the stresses of the past year. Many brought their creativity to the fore despite these challenges. Many students continued despite contracting from COVID-19; and others finished the school year despite tragedies in their own lives. To do all that work and do so ably is just astounding. I was a crummy undergrad, so seeing so many brilliant students is really humbling. They made this past year work, and for that, I am immensely grateful 🙂
paris
5/7/21In February 2020, I took a fortuitous research trip to the United Kingdom, not knowing that it would be the last opportunity to do such research as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the month wore on, and coverage of the virus began to focus on the plight of Spain and Italy, I decided to take a trip to Paris for a few days in between the end of my research in Durham and the final days in London. I booked a room in Paris and took the Eurostar to Paris.
Unsurprisingly to anyone who has gone to Paris, I fell in love with the city. I visited the Louvre for only a day. But its vastness felt like a challenge to visit it again and again in the years to come. The rainy weather and increasing uncertainty of COVID-19 meant that I couldn’t take advantage of my Parisian sojourn to explore more of the city. But what I saw whetted my desire to go to Paris once more. I hope that the proliferation of vaccinations will allow for a return to normalcy of tourism in Paris. I miss Paris despite being there for a few days.
Below are a few images I took during this visit. A belated post, no doubt. But I don’t think there’s a statute of limitations to posting these images. So enjoy! Maybe I’ll be back soon, who knows?
Like everyone, I’ve seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower ad nauseum. If not the most photographed structure on Earth, it’s certainly in the top 5. But seeing it in person, seeing this iron laddice rise up over Paris was just breathtaking. In my mind I was just thinking: “Oh shit, that’s the Eiffel Tower!” I was giddy looking at it.
The Eiffel Tower and the Seine
The Eiffel Tower from the Place du Trocadéro.
Selfie of myself in front of the Eiffel Tower. Touristy? Yes. A bit kitsch? Sure. Worth it? Definitely!
Case in point regarding the low crowds: the Mona Lisa’s line was only a 5 minute wait! Again, toursity and kitschy to go look at this surprisingly tiny portrait. But again, I’m fine with that.
embellishments in travel narratives
9 November 2019This is just a stray thought, but in the course of these past few years of research, I am struck by the difference between the contents of exploratory field journals compared with the published works based on those field journals. Specifically, I am referring to the phenomenon whereby published journals and travel narratives contain more embellishments and details that are not found in the original field journals.
After going through a few journals by Richard Francis Burton, I am struck by how much more detail is found in his published works than are in his field journals. I found a similar pattern after reading Samuel White Baker’s journals during my first research trip some years back. This is to say nothing of John Petherick’s oeuvre, namely his apologia over claims of his involvement in the Nile slave trade.
I am having a hard time reconciling this fact. Were these explorers so good at retaining these narrative details that they did not bother recording these events in their field journals? Maybe something else? However, my more cynical take is that some of the embellishment never occurred in the first place, being added in the course of publication to “spice things up.”
My view can be best summed as: “you’d really think someone would do that, just publish a travel narrative and tell lies?”
After reading Raymond John Howgego’s lecture “Invented and Apocryphal Narratives of Travel from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day,” I think there’s some reason to be skeptical as to the veracity of these narratives, given that the reading public (and certainly the scientific community) would have a hard time verifying these claims.
However, I think the one aspect that made it difficult to fib was what can be termed “geographic data,” such coordinates, place names, ethnographic information, etc. Given the discussions and debates moderated by the Royal Geographical Society or the Athenaeum over controversies regarding place names or field research, I do wonder if the potential to verify such data gave license to explorers to embellish (or outright lie) about their deeds and adventures in far off lands. After all, the existence of geographical features like lakes and rivers, along with botanical and ethnographic data would be verifiable by future explorers. But how would one verify specific encounters with “greedy” natives? Or the “heroics” in defending English pride to an uncouth chieftain? Or in felling an especially ferocious beast? Truth be told, it’s not possible.
There’s no way to know for sure what’s truth and what’s fiction regarding these narratives. But it does open up the question as to why details are added or omitted in travel narratives, especially in the case of travel narratives that also serve scientific ends.
scattered thoughts on my ongoing research trip
20 July 2019[n.b. - this was an unfinished draft for a post for 2019, hence the abrupt ending]
I am three weeks into my research trip to the UK, so thought I’d update this blog with my trip. I don’t have a singular, linear narrative of my trip but rather I will provide an assortment of thoughts, appreciations, and complaints I’ve accrued thus far.
On my accomodations in London…
Before my first trip to London in 2017, my former advisor suggested I book a room at UniversityRooms.com, where I could find accomodations at the many student dorm buildings across London. I ultimately stayed at the Wilson House in Paddington. While the neighboring area was touristy and kitschy, the ability to do laundry and cooking on-site was fantastic. Last year I decided to stay at a weird Turkish/Kazakh hotel in Camberwell whose only redeeming qualities were piping hot showers and working A/C. While I liked getting to know Camberwell and South London, I did miss the ability to cook and save some money.
This year I am staying at the Ifor Evans Hall in Camden. I wouldn’t recommend it. Camden is great, but the facilities at Ifor Evans are a bit run down. The kitchen gets crowded rather quickly, so cooking has been difficult. The windows do not block noise, so every evening people on my side of the dorm are kept awake by a gaggle of
On the various London Archives…
I am highly appreciative of the help and hospitality I’ve received from the Royal Geographical Society. The staff is friendly and very knowledgeable about the RGS’s collection. While I wish the Society would reconsider its stance on photographing archival materia for personal research purposes, I have had a good time taking notes and finding new threads to follow for my research. I’m almost done with my first leg of research at the RGS, but I am currently collating more sources to examine once I return from Durham in mid-August (assuming I don’t do a detour to Oxford).
Much closer to my residence is the Wellcome Library. Even if you may not be doing archival research at the Wellcome Library, the library is probably the best place to do writing and other work. In contrast to the British Library, which every seat outside the manuscripts rooms are taken by hundreds of teenagers doing their homework or the average joe on Twitter, the Wellcome Library’s second floor study spaces are quiet and relatively sparse. The fast wifi is also a plus.
When I came to London this past March, I had my introduction to the National Archives at Kew.
On commuting to (and from) the archives
In my previous trips, I had no issues with the public transportation in London. The buses were
Regarding Groceries
Tesco is love. Tesco is life 😍
Aside from Tesco, Mexican food has been on my mind this trip. You would think that, after spending most of June in Mexico, eating my fill in Michoacan, Puebla, and Mexico City, that I wouldn’t crave Mexican food. But you’d be wrong. While I have not found
gordon’s map of suakin to berber
17 February 2019What I find interesting in researching Nile exploration is the synonymity between field science and colonial warfare present in Sudan during the 1880s and 1890s. This map, taken from an 1885 issue of Science, is from a report by C.P. Stone on the unfolding siege of Khartoum:
A Civil War veteran, Stone (along with a hundred other veterans) was invited by Egypt to train its military. Stone stayed in Egypt until the 1882 Urabi Revolt and the subsequent bombardment of Alexandria by the Royal Navy. In 1884 and early 1885, Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum, his force surrounded by the Mahdist rebels. On Jan. 26 1885, the Mahdist took Khartoum.
Using his experience as a springboard to speak authoritatively on matters of geography, Stone speaks about Khartoum’s fall by providing an overview of Sudan’s geography between the Nile and the Red Sea. With an attached copy of Gordon’s 1874 map of the region, Stone speaks to the logistical issues facing any mission to avenge Gordon’s death.
But why was this published in Science? Given that this same issue of Science would extol Gordon’s scientific credentials by citing Gordon’s military prowess, I have questions on how Americans viewed the relationship between scientific thinking and military skill during the 1880s and 1890s.
In any case, I went through the journal article to reassembled the map. It’s above in all its glory. For a larger copy of the map (at 10 mb), click here:
mexico city
16 February 2019Apologies for the lack of updates, but as I try to collect my thoughts for a future post here I figure it would be good to post pictures of my trip to Mexico City last summer.
The Mexican flag at the Zócolo, June 2018
I stayed in Mexico City for a week in June 2018. I decided to explore the city on my own and at my own pace. What I wanted to see most was the Museo Nacional de Antropología (MNA), the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. The MNA houses the pre-Columbian heritage of Mexico, from the first arrivals millennia ago to the Mayans, Tarascans, and Aztecs.
The Murals of Cacaxtla
The MNA is large and will take the better part of a day to navigate. It is one of the best museums I have ever visited.
Beyond the MNA there are plenty of sites to visit in Mexico City, such as the Monumento a la Revolución. Originally built to be the centerpiece of the Mexican Congress during the Porfiriato, it was commandeered to become the monument for the Mexican Revolution.
There is the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the historical theatre of Mexico City.
If you go to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, just be aware that you will need to buy a ticket from the ticket booth to go beyond the ground floor. Stand at the long line, since that’s for the theatre and not to see the murals.
The last site I’ll mention here its the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), which is close by to the Zocolo. It houses Mexican art from the colonial era into the modern. I especially enjoyed their special exhibit on Nahui Olin.
I’m embarrassed to say that I did not know of Nahui Olin until this visit. But I’m now a fan. Her typography and design aesthetic is phenomenal.
There is also a large collection of portrait art at the MUNAL:
Unfortunately, I was not able to stay in the city longer. There were many more sights I wanted to visit, but time was limited since I had to prepare for a research trip to the UK. If time permits, I will go back this summer. As someone born and raised in the US and who is also of Mexican descent, I really connected with the art and culture of my ancestral homeland. It’s useful to know where one comes from, and I hope to learn more from Mexico in the years to come.
john hanning speke's map of central africa
8 May 2017One of the joys of researching is encountering the unexpected. Case in point is this map, produced in 1863 for the Royal Geographical Society, depicting the travels of John Hanning Speke through Central Africa:
I discovered this map through JSTOR's archive of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (Article Link). Attached to a report by Speke on his return to Britain detailing his various encounters and exploits, the map itself was divided into 16 distinct pages. I decided to collate these pages together to produce the map above. Neat, huh?
applying to grad school: conclusion
18 December 2016The first part was done: deciding to go to graduate school. The rest was a bit harder.
After I had successfully defended my master's thesis , my advisor asked what my plans were now that I had done that hurdle. When I told her of my inclination of going on for my PhD, she was super supportive. Her only word of advice was in carefully choosing were I would like to get my doctorate from.
Fit is important in choosing a graduate program. Not only do you have to consider if the potential faculty and department are able to support you the best that they can, but you have to wonder how you would fit into the program. Are there enough faculty members who are able to serve as your mentor? How does the university do in funding graduate students? Stipends? Travel/research grants? In providing academic resources?
This is something I wholly neglected to evaluate until it was too late. I was only concerned with finding potential professors to work with, which also was done badly. I searched a random set of universities - schools I've heard of, schools I thought were interesting - and searched for professors through departmental faculty pages to see any potential interests. But since no other professors is really doing what I'm doing, it was an awkward process. In hindsight, after reading numerous forum posts from GradCafe after I had applied, the best bet would've been to contact professors and asked them. But I didn't and pressed forward.
If there is any takeaway from my experience, it's that I did a lot of things badly and got immensely lucky at the end.
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Applying to graduate school is expensive. You will normally pay $50-70 per application. As someone of limited financial means since leaving my old job, this constrained the number of schools I applied to. And even if you get rejected, that money will never be seen again. I do wonder why there isn't a greater movement to remove these application fees across the board. Yes, some schools do have fee-free applications for financially disadvantaged applicants, but this is neither consistent or readily advertised. If universities were actually serious about opening up graduate education to minutes and lower-income students, this needs to change. But it hasn't, and I was forced to charge this on my credit cards.
Not only are fees a limitation, but so is asking professors to write you letter of recommendations. Even if application fees are not a barrier, asking your professors to write you 15 LoRs comes across as a bit much to me. But maybe it wouldn't be. Maybe your professors will be happy to write those letters.
But I didn't know since I didn't ask them what a reasonable number of applications would be. I simply assumed six applications was "enough." I asked and had no issues on that account. But again, the professors I've asked I have worked closely with, and they knew what I was capable of. If you are thinking about graduate school, just keep in mind who you need to ask for LoRs and ask them what they process normally entails. Would've done me some good.
With both those out of the way, I then went on to do my applications. If there is one takeaway here, it's to read the instructions carefully and press forward. Fortunately, I did not screw this part up! Yay me!
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The application process finished in December. Everything was submitted on time, and my LoRs were sent on time. It was now to play the waiting game.It is around this time when I began reading GradCafe and other sites, and as I read more, I cringed more. So yes, read these sort of sites before you start applying. They're full of wise sages. Heed their advice!
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Of the schools I applied to, three accepted me and three rejected me. In hindsight, I chalk this up to my obliviousness to note how I would fit into these programs. One was a dream school that I applied to without considering the fact that the faculty members I needed were not entirely a good fit for my own research.
The three schools that did accept me were more close to me in the "fit" department. What made the difference to me was that Vanderbilt reached out to me: first my future advisor, then graduate students. What made me lucky was that my future advisor was animated to reach out to me (despite not having prior contact) and wanted to see my research first-hand. I imagine he would be busy enough to justify looking over GPAs and discarding those that would not interest him. But he looked into my application and saw something there. I really lucked out there, and I'm thankful for that.
Not everyone will be so lucky. If there are any takeaways, it's these:
- Contextualize your research interests into something larger. Since my research dealt with geography and cartography, I should have situated my own research into the wider history of science.
- Understand that your research is unique. As such, you will not find a future person of interest (PoI) who will do what you do. From what I've heard from various professors at Vanderbilt, having a graduate student apply doing the exact same thing as you is actually detrimental. Find someone who you admire and think can expand your research, not another you.
- Aim High. Vanderbilt's graduate acceptance rate is on par with Yale. I purposely did not apply to any Ivy League schools out of a sheer sense of intimidation. If you have the money, try to apply to a top-tier program. You'll never know!
- Contact your PoI! Seriously, it's necessary. Why? Because the department will discuss amongst themselves for graduate students, and if a PoI knows you, they will vouch for you. This is how students are accepted. Not by the "best" GPAs or "best" credentials, but by these intra-department discussions. That my advisor would reach out to me and vouched for me in these discussions only proves that I should've done this will all the schools I applied to.
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In the end, I got into a great program. I just finished my first semester, and I'm very much looking for the next. While things worked out for me, they so easily could not. I do wonder where I would be if I was not accepted to any programs. Some on GradCafe have said they've applied multiple years before they got accepted to their dream schools. I don't think I would've been able to do that, and I greatly admire those who do.
I do not know where my journey in grad school will take me. But I'll be sure to keep this page updated with any news.