July 18, 2010
Turkey - Week 1 Update! : Jared as PhD Student in Art History and Museum Studies
OK, OK - I know it has been a week and no updates on my adventures in Turkey just a random tweet now and then. Well I have an excuse - I'm tired - really really tired. Today is Sunday which is our day off. So I slept in late (ie 9am) ate myself some breakfast and when the power came back on I committed to write this update before I take the bus into town and find myself a local mall.
I will not be posting any pictures today. While I have taken well over 1,000 - my agreement with the IAS says that I will not post any picture without authorization first. And while the Director just asked me to run them by her quickly - I wasn't ready and will post photos later in the week.
So without further delay - Turkey Week 1:
Day 0 - Sat/Sun: The flight was relatively ok - even after Travelocity assured me I wouldn't be charged for a second bag they made me pay $50 (which Travelocity is handling). The 11 hour flight from Chicago to Istanbul is mostly a blur because even though they had fully interactive "pick your own movie" touch screen devices - I slept for over 7 hours.
Istanbul was easy - no one said anything at immigration or customs and I then changed some money found my fellow student Karyn (who was already there) grabbed some rice pudding and waiting for the flight to Isparta. They claimed my bags were too heavy but some nice chats here and there fixed that (at no charge). We arrived in Isparta where Prof Iversen met us and took us to the field house in Gonen (the town we are staying in). It was past midnight and when I got to the room my roommates quickly tossed out their smokes (they have been good since) and I went to bed. I will write an entire post later on the living conditions here.
Day 1 - Monday:
Breakfast is at 6:30am and then people leave at 7am for their activities. When I walked down the hall at 6:30 (its really a schoolhouse that we have turned into a dorm for the summer) the Director told me to go back to bed and that there was a second breakfast at 10am. After second breakfast they drove Karyn and me to Isparta to get our residency permit from the local police station - it was a pleasant wait but it did take several hours of sitting (and I have never actually seen the permit).
On Monday night I walked the 2 blocks into town to look around and then came back and went to bed.
Everything seemed very laid back and casual - seemed so mellow that I had no idea what was coming next!
Day 2 - Tuesday:
There are several teams here and the German group is doing geological testing up on the mountain where the ancient Greek fortress lies in ruins. I was to go up with them (at 8:30 not 7am) and I ended up going up in the second truck which was much later. It was a crazy drive straight up the mountain on a path that was a fire road (to prevent the spread of forest fires) so it wasn't really a road and it went UP! Here every time we see a fork in the road here we take the one that looks less like a road than the other.
I was sure to wear my long pants, high boots, SPF100, and bug spray and boy do you need all of it up on the mountain. We could only get so far by truck and then it was a straight climb up with no paths and lots of prickly plants. I had my gear in my backpack and shoulder sling but it was nothing compared to the gear brought up by the Germans. I took many photos and some great panoramas.
The Director said I could stay or go with her on another adventure so I packed up and headed back to the truck.
We took another road through the mountains where the Nomads live in small shacks and tend to their sheep (which are everywhere). As we explored a field I found my first shard of pottery (after several rocks) and our driver had fun playing games with the rams. The German professors children (8 year old girls) were with us and it was just a pleasant ride through the mountains. We even stopped at a mountain spring where they drank the cool running water. This has happened several times since and even though it hasn't given anyone "the poops" I still haven't done it.
On the way back we stopped for ice-cream - yeah!
As hydrated as I have been staying the sun makes you very tired and I sleep here very well.
Day 3 - Wednesday:
Everyday the students are told which team they are on and when to be where. The Director keeps moving me around to different places and its funny how I get all the best trips.
On Wednesday we drove into Isparta to go to the museum. They were doing research and photography and squeezes (which are like rubbings but 3 dimensional paper impressions) of some of the inscriptions. The museum has a vast amount of stuff and while small it is very well laid out. They sculpture is all in gardens outdoors and it was amazing to see. I shot some panoramas of the place and some other VR experiments.
I was told to check out the pottery exhibition because on Monday I will be shooting the work for a catalog!
People are out usually from 7 to 1 and then we have lunch and stay in for the rest of the day to do work or have seminars.
Day 4 - Thursday:
On Thursday I was part of what is best described as the anthropology team (though they don't call themselves that). We drove to the site of a recent illegal dig (ie grave robbing) where several team members were taking care of the graves (its an important thing when something like that happens). There we met a Nomad family one of who came with us to serve as a guide.
We drove several km across the mountains and stopped at a family (they car left us there) and we interviewed them. It was all in Turkish but you got to see how these people lived in the mountains - very different. One family had a 20 day old baby who was adorable. They were very friendly and asked us to eat bread and cheese with them and then took us to the next family (and the next). We ended up talking to 3 or 4 families walking from hill to hill and from shack to shack.
At one point the team tells me we are walking down into the valley to get some water and then to another Nomad family. We hike down the mountain into a lovely stream (of course more sheep around) and then after the break they tell me we are going right back up the mountain! Because I am slow (cause I'm almost 40, fat, tired, and loaded with gear) I start up the mountain first. They all passed me which is fine but when I get to the top - they weren't there - they were gone!
They apparently had kept going but I didn''t know in which direction. So there I am in the mountains all alone - it is great video and photos to be sure. I veered towards the left where I saw some grassy areas (with the intention of going back to a Nomad family I met and getting directions or a lift home) and when I came over a ridge I saw the team looking for me frantically. They had gone to the right.
We met another family and then I saw this strange stacking of stones like a 20 feet tall Jenga game. They told me it helped keep the wolves away (like a scarecrow) it was pretty cool.
They then told us that the car wasn't going to pick a up and that we would need to walk back the entire way - so off we went though the mountains again we met a lady with a horse who was very friendly. The head of the team was great and recorded interviews constantly and got people to agree to let me film and take pictures.
After a hike we found that someone had called the jeep for us and we didn't have to walk back the entire way after all!
We then headed back to the field house.
But the day wasn't over for me yet. The head of the team told me to be ready because we were going to go into another town. I changed from boots to shoes and we drove to the other city. There we were met by the mayor who spoke to the team for a little bit (the team at this point was just 4 of us). He then took us to a cultural room where they have special events (and we had to take off our shoes - so it was good I got rid of the boots) and showed us some nice antiques.
He took us around town and showed us some ancient stones (with inscriptions that the other team will have to go back and investigate) and we had tea with him. He invited me to come back again and said they might arrange a demo of some ladies making the local bread. We will see if time lets this happen.
The Germans were leaving on Friday so we had a big party for them and it was a lot of fun!
Day 5 - Friday:
On Friday I went to the local Bazaar (which is only on Fridays) with the head of the anthropological team. It was great because we encountered some of the Nomads we had met the day before selling their olive and cheese products. The olives were about $2-$3 per pound (and yes I did all the conversions right). There were lots of fruit vendors giving out samples of little plums and apples and the yummiest cherries I have ever eaten. When I asked how much the cherries were she told me 1 Turkish lira for a kilo. That's like .75 cents American for 2.2 lbs of cherries!
The market was fun and I did a little shopping - they told me that Istanbul was going to be very expensive so I will try and do some stocking up next week.
Since the Germans were gone they were going to give back the Jeep - but without the Jeep getting to the mountain would be difficult. I never go to photograph the robbed graves so they took me up there for a quick shoot. The wild dogs started to bark and growl at us. I was ready to flee when our diver grabbed some rocks and drove them off!
The ancient town of Appolonia is not too far from Gonen and there was an old road that no one takes anymore that runs through the mountains. Our job was to drive the old road. When we go to the town we found the ruin of an old Mosque which might have been a church. There were berry and fruit trees around and we all had some yummy samples.
We stopped for Turkish tea and coffee and then headed back on the new road (which was still a mountain road) and back to the field house.
Day 6 - Saturday:
In the morning I finally got to go on my first 7am trip. We went to a local farm to a field that had recently been plowed in the corner of which were some larger stones and broken pillars from what looks like a temple. We walked through the field collecting pottery shards. It was crazy we just kept finding them - bag after bag after bag. Collecting shards means bending a lot - which is not good for me - so I pointed a lot as a I photographed and filmed.
The march back was great and we sample the fruit trees as we went - I have never had white mulberries before and they were amazing. We saw the ruin of an old bath with an ancient inscription on the wall (they had found it last year) and a German speaking Turkish fellow came out and talked to us for a bit.
In the afternoon we had a field trip to Sagalassos which is outside of the area of our Director so it was just educational.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagalassos
It was amazing and I got some killer shots of this ruined theater - the tunnels inside were mostly intact. It was just a fabulous day.
Since Sunday we are on our own we stopped at a grocery store for food where I also got shower shoes and some other goodies.
Day 7 - Sunday:
Sitting here writing this stuff for you fine folks and then heading into town!
That's it for now - I will follow up this week with a post about our living conditions and food as well as a photo essay after I get approval.
See ya - Jared
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March 24, 2009
On Passing My French Exam... : Jared as PhD Student in Art History and Museum Studies
So I think it is only right that I set the record straight. I would hate to think that my shocking and surprising passing of the French foreign language exam would somehow be seen as a negative mark towards the department or the university.
To get a PhD in Art History a student is required to have 2 foreign languages. Usually one of these they already have when the come in with an MA - as my MA didn't require one - I started out as 'down by two'.
In Art History most people opt to take French and German. The logic is a sound one - most of the scholarship in Art History was written in French and German so being able to read these languages is essential to research. I buy this argument.
The department allows you to fulfill the language requirement by passing an exam. Traditionally this exam gives a student an essay in another language and a series of questions in English. Armed only with a dictionary and time the student then answers the questions in English thereby demonstrating their competency to understand the other language. A skill which I agree is essential for scholarship.
The scheduling of this exam has always been a nightmare for me - usually it has been short notice or when I have been teaching so I really haven't had a chance to take a crack at it.
Why would I? Well I think it would be useful to take and fail the exam just to get a flavor for what the exam is like. Sort of a 'Know Your Enemy' kind of logic.
While I do have some language experience in both Hebrew and Aramaic (probably stronger in Aramaic) they are not approved languages for Art History. I can't really blame them especially since they have opened up the languages a bit more to include more than just French and German as options.
Most of my friends and even some faculty have suggested that I propose that a computer language should count. As gutsy as I am - I would never had proposed this myself. I did however do some research and in some PhD programs where two languages are required - a computer language can sometimes count as one (as can International Sign Language). Regretfully, none of these programs were Art History and a department that wouldn't accept Aramaic isn't going to accept Pascal. (Plus, who would do the testing?)
I have finished my coursework as a PhD student. And yes, over the years I have cracked a book or two that hasn't been in English. The online translation services like babelfish.yahoo.com as well as my skills with a dictionary have served me to a point. I have been to France on 4 separate occasions - one of them traveling alone for 3 weeks - and a few words popped in here and there. As I prepare for my 5th trip to France I spend a lot of time at French websites - it is about survival.
This doesn't mean I can speak French. But it is like someone who doesn't know how to type - I can 'hunt and peck' French when I need to.
However as I can't actually get my degree without two languages I knew I would have to do something. So I signed up for French 101.
The irony of the situation - which has been a constant source of frustration for me - is that 6 credits of Intro French can be used instead of passing the French Exam. Why is it ironic? Because while two semester of conversational French will help you read it better - the courses are designed to help you speak it. Case Western does not offer a French Readings course designed to help humanities students read French. The other irony is that the policy for French 101 at Case Western is that you don't get credit for it until you pass French 102. Each of these courses is 4 credits so to fulfill the required 6 credits you need to take 8.
Regardless it was my really my only out - so as I said - I signed up for French 101. It is a lot of work. I mean a tremendous amount of work. As it should be - I am sure. But it isn't something you can cram into once a week and my life just wasn't keeping up with it - so I had to drop it.
Shortly after dropping it - I took the French exam. This was my first attempt and I took it so I could say I was doing something (I had just dropped French) and to see what it was like. The article was on Rodin and I felt pretty good about getting through the questions. I mean I felt really good. I thought I had passed it. When I got the results saying I hadn't, I was pretty disappointed.
The next semester they only gave us one weeks notice about the exam and I had a conflict so I was unable to try again. I knew I have to do something about these language requirements - it really is the next hurdle before comps, prospectus, and thesis. This semester I am teaching three academic courses so I just told everyone I was putting it all on hold till the summer and that I would then look into an online course that fell under the department's requirements.
To give the department credit - when I asked about online courses they originally said "no" but finally came back with a firm set of criteria under which it would be possible. Flexible but firm - I can do that.
I was also told that because of the very short notice given for the previous exam that the department would issue their own language exam to better fit what they wanted from us. They would provide an essay and we would translate it. They also gave us three months warning. Which is great for scheduling but as I said I was really too busy to study.
As many of you know - well anyone who gets this far in this posting would know - I was recently given an arts grant by the Maison Française de Cleveland Fund to help support an expedition to France to film "Of Castles and Crepes: A Documentary of French History and Culture". This will be my fifth trip to France and it involves a great deal of preparation which means many French websites as well as phone calls to France. As much as I joke about only being able to say "I don't speak French - do you speak English" and "Fork, please" I am a tad better than that.
So the exam came up again and I scheduled to take it. My logic was two-fold. First, so when someone said how is your PhD coming I could answer "Well I failed the French exam again" and second so I could see how the department language exam was. At the exam they handed us blue books and an article by Professor Landau on Deconstructing and Reconstructing Cindy Sherman. I would argue, having taken critical theory with Dr. Landau, that the article would have been challenging to read in English. Its a tough subject that Dr. Landau knows well, so it would be a hard read. I just went through it step by step. I felt comfortable with what I was translating and I got a nice amount of the way through it. At the end, when we were down to five minutes, I bluffed a few lines, figured it couldn't hurt.
I left the exam as relaxed as I entered it. I had no expectations of passing partially because of my disappointment of failing it the last time. I had done what I needed to do - I took the exam and didn't make a fool out of myself and went off to lunch.
When I received the notice that I passed I was in shock. I waited a few hours for a retraction and when it didn't come I celebrated like you wouldn't believe. But over the past few days I have come to realize that joking about it might make the department look bad and I felt it deserved one last analysis.
It is true that I am not fluent in French. But when equipped with the proper tools I can understand what I need to. This is the skill that the department wants and which I think I have demonstrated.
If I am deluding myself and it was a mistake - then I say this:
"No take backs!"
Next stop! Spanish! (I can count in it!)
Posted by jeb2 at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2007
Introduction: Student : Jared as PhD Student in Art History and Museum Studies
I’ve been a student at Case almost as long as I have worked there. I came to Case as an undergraduate right out of high school. Back then I had some big ideas – I was a double major in Physics and Electrical Engineering. That lasted about a year and a half and when I burned out of Physics I did what every ex-Physics major does: I changed majors to Psychology. That’s actually not meant to be as funny as its written - there are a lot of ex-Physics majors in Psychology as many of the early Psychologists came from Physics in the first place.
In my Junior year I dropped out of Case and went to work instead. It became a running gag on whether I would ever go back to school. Funnily enough, while I was working at Case and could have gone to school for free I also owed Case some back tuition that prevented me from registering. This was solved when my former boss resigned and records indicated that he hadn’t reviewed me in over 5 years. 5 years of accrued back raises paid off my debt to Case and I re-registered to finish my BA. I had very few requirements left as I had finished my core in Psychology and only needed one more Music course for my minor. I had become friends with Tim Shuckerow, Director of Art Education/Art Studio, and ended up taking a lot of Art Studio classes (which I ended up also getting a minor in) and miraculously graduated college 2 weeks before my 30th birthday.
It was during this time that I started to realize how much I enjoyed being both an artist and a teacher (I had been teaching workshops for my job) and after some long talks with Tim I enrolled in the Non Licensure (Plan I) Art Education Masters Program from which I graduated in 2004.
Being the glutton that I am, I decided to go back to school one more time to get a terminal degree – a PhD. The problem was in choosing the right field. To help decide I took: Sensation and Perception in Psychology and Introduction to Museum Studies in Art History. Art History proved a better fit for my interests (plus I had started working for the museum) and I enrolled as a PhD student in Art History and Museum Studies.
I’m third generation Case – my father went to Western Reserve and my grandfather to Adelbert and it feels good to get my third degree from the institution.
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