Summer Times: Packing, Moving, and Conferencing

It's been a summer of transition so far. At home, the family and I have been getting ready to move. Boxes are scattered throughout the house as we are trying to pack and clean in order to get the house on the market. I've found loads of memories.

H with her judgy look. She asked me if that was for Christmas.
"No, Honey. That's a Texas Homecoming Mum."

I've been slowly moving to my new office since I started as Associate Dean at the beginning of the month. As a borderline-hoarder, I'm quite proud that I've been purging at home and in my office. Of course it's difficult at times.

A best friend keeps it real.

My summer research project ended with some success, and while I am treating the summer as a wrap-up of my sabbatical, I can feel the sabbatical life slipping away. Work is getting busy as I am wrapping up some scholarly projects before the semester begins.

Soaking up extra kid time despite the extra work. 

Last week I was able to attend a philosophy conference in Montreal.

Ran up to Mont-Royal one morning for a view of Montreal.

Mixture of old and new buildings downtown Montreal.

My favorite street had houses like this lined on both sides.
This neighborhood was between Mile End and Downtown.

Graffiti art was throughout the city

But not all of the graffiti was pretty.

Street names

 It was an important conference to me for many reasons. This was my third attempt, but first time, to be accepted into the Canadian Philosophical Association annual conference.

Most important sign at a conference: Coffee!

The paper I co-presented was based upon the original proposal idea that got me to Oxford three years ago: Molecular Symmetry, Beauty, and Truth. That idea and paper has gone through several changes, but it hasn't been ready for journal submission yet. The feedback from the conference commenter and attendees, as well as the ideas swirling around this conference and others, helped tremendously. I'm hoping that means that this paper can be rewritten and get submitted in the next year. I also felt that this conference marks the end of my sabbatical and the start of a new academic year. I don't have another conference any time soon. Currently, I'm waiting to hear about some other journal submissions, working on revisions for a resubmission, and working on two new papers.

This conference was also important to me outside of my immediate research area. Instead of only attending my area of interest, philosophy of science, I attended one session in feminist philosophy. I am glad I saw another way that philosophy is contributing to society, and learned about some important work being done by Kate Manne in her book, Down Girl: The Logic of Mysogyny. It's next on my reading list. This conference being held in Quebec gave me an unique opportunity to be in a place where English is not the primary language. To be honest, I was a bit disoriented most of the week. Navigating was difficult for me (more than usual) since all the French street names looked similar to me. While everyone in restaurants, etc. switched to English once they realized I didn't speak French, it's been a long time since I was in the minority. It was good for me. Being in a new city, I did my usual Pinterest research so I could soak up the area on my off-time.

I ate a lot of bread. My favorite was chocolate croissants. Funny, I have no pictures of those. Probably because I inhaled each one.

Fairmount Bagel is famous. 

My favored bagel - Fairmount.

St. Viateur's bagel were good, but not fresh out of the oven.

I went to Old Montreal and Basilique Notre-Dame.

 
I think England ruined me. While this area and basilica is pretty, you can't beat hundreds of years old streets and cathedrals.
The Grand Prix took place the day after I left so the city was abuzz with construction and street markets.

I managed to get to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for a couple of hours.

This huge wolf statue was freaky.

My favorite painting was this Mark Rothko. 

The museum is a huge facility (six buildings), but I made it through one building including the visiting Picasso exhibit. This exhibit was a great learning experience for me, too.

This was the Picasso art I was familiar with...

But he also did other styles as well. This sketch is from early in his career. 

The exhibit tackled the topic of appropriation and Picasso's work. I didn't know Picasso imitated African artists, but the exhibit would show the arts side-by-side, and you could clearly see the resemblance.

The exhibit did a good job I thought educating about appropriation, and also featured modern African artists. The exhibit was thought-provoking, and I'm thankful I got to see it.

It only rained one day in Montreal, and the other days were beautiful 70-degree weather. I'm glad I got to walk around so much. I feel like that's the best way to get the feel of a city. So on my six-hour layover in Detroit on my way home, I Ubered downtown to get the feel of a revitalized city. I was impressed with the architecture.

 After the long travel day, I was relieved to be home. Even with the busy past week of packing, moving, working, I'm thankful it's summer. I've gotten times with friends and family, and I'm looking forward to more in the next couple of months.