One of the perks of academia (or downsides, depending on whether you like travel) is the need/opportunity to present your research and find out what others are researching, at academic conferences.

If you are lucky, you might swing a conference in the Maldives. More likely it will be some frostbitten place where the tea is lukewarm.

At anyrate, I came across this interesting website: Conference Alerts. You never know, you may just have a burning need to present at: The Potato - From Renaissance to the 21st century: History, Society, Economics, Culture conference.

GETTING BACK TO BASICS: ISLAM 101 (NEW!)
by Imam Zaid Shakir
A course explaining the basics of Islamic belief and worship with a concentration on the elements and issues that are essential for the sound and practical practice of Islam in our time.  Appropriate and beneficial for not only the new Muslim, but for any Muslim living in the West, this course will cover “the Five Pillars,” “the Articles of Faith,” aqidah, basic fiqh, and critical issues such as appropriate gender relations and how to defend oneself against the attacks currently being levied against Muslims.
(Registration: Audio - $40 / Video - $60)

THE PROPHETIC CHARACTERICS PART III (NEW!)
by Ustadh Yahya Rhodus
A study of the inward and outward characteristics of the Prophet, upon him be peace, from his practices and personal effects to his noble attributes, taking from the text of the late scholar Shaykh Yusuf al-Nabahani, Wasa’il al-Wusul ila Shama’il al-Rasul (“The Means of Arrival to the Characteristics of the Messenger”).  Studying the characteristics of the Messenger of Allah , upon him be peace, fills one’s heart with love for him and inspires one to follow his great example.
(Registration: Audio - $40)

Also available: THE PROPHETIC CHARACTERISTICS PART I & PART II
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I am about to come to the end of my work contract and launch back into my PhD full-time, walhamdulillah. Last year, I was offered the opportunity to take leave from my PhD for a year to work on projects related to my PhD. So I am sort of topsy-turvey, in that I am technically only a year into my PhD, but I am at the analysis and writing up stage (okay apart from needing to brush up my literature review).

The reports I wrote are currently before the stakeholder so it will be nice to get the go-ahead once they’re done and dusted. It’s been a long year. At the end of it, my main supervisor decided to leave to go to another institution. So I have two new supervisors instead of the old one, and I am really happy with the new setup.

So I’m having a look through my tattered old bibliography and getting excited about jumping back into the PhD next week. I have lots of thoughts and ideas floating around my head, and I’m keen to start solving the problems of the world hehehehehe.

Steve at the Cormorant Baker has a post up about developing a Baha’i identity that isn’t adminocentric. He and some other unaffiliated and/or unenrolled Baha’is are looking at what it means to be Baha’i without the administration, which is so central to the lives of most active Baha’is.

To be honest, I think one of the attractions of the Baha’i faith is the community. My parents each were attracted to the idea that there is a group of people who have been charged by God, free from racism, classism, sexism and other ‘isms’, to work to bring about world peace and a brighter future for all. Joining this group of people makes you feel like you too are part of a greater collective that is contributing to the wellbeing of humanity: an admirable motive indeed.

I think that’s why when people do get disillusioned with the Baha’i community (and they are, after all, fallible human beings) it burns so much.

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If you see the dancer spinning clockwise, you are a minority and you use more of the right side of the brain. (Yasmin and I both saw clockwise). If you see anti-clockwise (which Abu Yasmin did) you use more of your left brain. So I’m more ‘big picture’ and Abu Yasmin is more ‘detail oriented’. (You may want to download the gif to your desktop and then open it up in your browser so it goes at proper speed instead of being interrupted by internet traffict).