Traveller

I have been traveling extensively these days, and worked like hell. In less than a month I delivered 5 lectures (3 in the US, 2 in France) and conducted two seminars in the US. In the US I talked at Georgetown University on “Islam in France” (I spare you the long title) a lecture which I reduplicated for Miami University, Ohio and on French critical sociology (Miami again). I went to Ball State, Indiana, where I delivered a talk on “why your French guest might starve in front of your fridge full of food”. It was not about food, mind you, but about the rather drastic sense that French people have of their privacy. In the US the spring was hesitating, and we had rain. But it was warmer, and with more pleasant days that I would have had in France which, after all, is a marvelous country for its weather compared to the UK. In DC cherry trees were blossoming, but I did not get a chance to see them at their full splendor, because of the rainy weather when I was free (or the sunny weather when I was not).

All these trips were filled with meeting with friends, whether they are from the academic world or “civilian” friends, and I had the opportunity to make new acquaintances. I met through my friends T*& K* in DC the lawyer that extensively wrote the case that overturn the Supreme Court decision about sodomy laws. I was very impressed to hear it (though T* only gave me this detail after I met his friend) since I teach this case every year in my Master’s course. All these encounters were so pleasing to my affections and to my mind, also: I have always loved this Aristotelician idea that thinking is better done with friends, even though we have to be “friends of Plato, but greater friends of truth”.

Back to France, I had the opportunity to remember that I had my PHD in philosophy before turning into a political scientist, and that I had extensively worked on the philosophy of sciences (which left me with a rather positivist, though not quantitative, approach of social sciences) and I gave a lecture on “Europe and science” in Versailles. Another trip, but this time in France, took me to Bordeaux where I gave a lecture on the American visa policy on which I have worked for a National Agency for Research project that is leaded by my friend S* whom I was delighted to see again, after many years we had kept in touch but without actually meeting. I had diner with one of his friend (who could well turn into a friend for me too) and with his wife I had never been acquainted with previously. We had great diner (good food—of course—and so great talk!).