i cannot seem to load the original story although have seen the hoo haah!

:-) Of course I know! Forget the racist/imperialist thingy, delete button. :-)

And I also want to know Benm's response to me...

BenM,

considering I am the only one here who is not one of your "them" (although I absolutely dislike this us/them that is getting into this), would you respond to my post as well? I would be interested in what you have to say.

For me, you cannot use, for instance the ;argely pointless insults you used for Stressed!

Hmm.

Benm, facts first. I am (a) an international student (b) doing a completely UK based and UK focused PhD (c) do not get money from home for my work has nothing to do with there and (d) most importantly, am delighted to be researching with phenomenal people, at a phenomenal uni, in I think a phenomenal city and country :-)

Mind you also, I work every hour I can to pay my 13k quid tuition and living etc. I have two kind scholarships from my uni here which just about covered the mammoth tuition.

And from that position benm (doing UK focused work, and paying intl fees) I must disagree with you.


Back where I was born and raised, my uni had 2 French students and all rest were locals. Those guys paid 10 times more money for their degrees. Did the rest of us complain? Did we not think it natural for them to be charged more money? Did we find that racist? (to note, students from neighbouring countries with similar physcial atributes, since you raise the point, paid same fees like the rest of us did, but it was people from the West who had topay 10 times higher)

the point was, they 'could' and therefore they 'should'...at least that was the point in the college canteen, and other hang out zones.


Coming to my personal views on this (as a struggling intl student who does a UK based and completely UK focused phd):

1. UK *cannot* start to decide fees based on topics. Imagine the mess! They would be flooded with accusations of discrimination in interpretations etc etc.

2. The country cannot possibly subsidize for a student who does a UK focused phd and then one fine day 5 yrs later takes it away and leaves forever.


You cannot say that I am either a Brit, or a EU person, or studying my 'home' country, I am perhaps exactly where you are, an I think you need to re-think your arguments!

10 years from today, I'll be 34. Hmm, I hope to finish my PhD at 26, if the stars are willing, do a post doc right after (fingers crossed), and try to think about those things called relationships, men and 'settling down' by 30.

Academically, I am an idiot, naive and ambitious like a silly toddler so not listing stuff on my career wishlist for itsounds stupid and funny!

But for your qyestion, 10 yrs later, I would want to have a family, and my first book for sure. and this wishlist (!) above! ;-)

======= Date Modified 21 Sep 2009 18:06:47 =======

======= Date Modified 21 Sep 2009 17:23:56 =======
Sorry, i got it worng it seems... apologies..

======= Date Modified 21 Sep 2009 17:04:04 =======

======= Date Modified 21 Sep 2009 16:58:57 =======
May I step in to attempt a little peace, between two highly valued posters? :-)



Eska: I think Sneaks made her comment based on seeing some film studies undergrads watching films (perceived often as just fun), while she was spending her time in labs (sneaks, you do science, right?) My mum was doing her degree in literature when my aunt, her sister, 2 yrs younger, same uni, same dorm was poring over microscopes, even they had these moments. My aunt (who went on with science and works with science today) and my mum (who is a prof of Eng lit) now perfectly 'get' the fact that they don't quite know the others subjects, but they do agree that what the other does is highly valuable. I dont think Sneaks's comment was geared towards the fiilm and cultural studies scholarly work, but more a general groan from undergrad memories that was phrased wrongly....so Sneak's comment was not made by a person commenting with intricate knowledge of cultural scholarship and why it matters, for they are well outside the field...



Sneaks: Eska, is very rightfully hurt (as I was, as a media studies person), because art and culture as I said earlier, is the site of societal shaping...what endless worries society has had and continues to have over media impacts/effects on the vulnerable, countered by those who speak of people's activity and agency, on the importance of representing minorities (with responsibility), on the interaction of cultural artefacts, identities, power, politics... one could go on... so your comment was interpreted not by the undergrad watching films (albeit, also, responsibly and seriously) but by the researcher of society and humankind...



:-) smile, you both!

When I was nervous earlier this month to give a paper in a conference with 14 speakers, where everyone else was a scholar, and me the only student, my supervisor told me, before went up to speak... "perhaps half the people here are silly, half of them will be interested in anything that comes there way, some are emailing or doing their own stuff, and perhaps 3 will know what you are talking about. For their sake, be interesting, and be interested"

PS: also, I dont find it worth my (our) while to stop to disagree with viewpoints that find science subjects more important and 'real' than humanities and social sciences.

This is clearly a wrong view, and hence does not merit debate.

(perhaps my strongest feeling ever, on this forum, from the day I joined)

My field is media and comm, so, in agreement with Eska, I think it is absolutely pointless to say one subject is important while another isnt. Society, and the economic climate of specific times may position certain areas of inquiry to be more urgent than others, this however, is regardless of their value and importance.

PS: Arts, culture, literature, the media are sites of great tussles of power, politics and similar and their impact on society is more than profound. Hence the research.

But this will now blow up into a mess, i fear :-) So, bye!!

You guys, you'll never learn... I have won this thread a long time ago. Come and say Congrats instead of growling and RRRRahhhing :-)

I think, in agreement with what many have already said, that 'forum culture' is perhaps what we already have? Culture need not be a normative 'should be' that people should aspire for, or should try to create... instead, let us be happy with what we have createwd amongst us, this is our forum culture, and this seems to work fine enough for most! As for online-offline parallels, there are many similarities between online and face to face, but many dissimilarities too... words spoken in a bar cannot be preserved and archived in print, tracked and deleted at will, and kept in store for future reference. Not that this impacts what we are discussing, but just wanted to think through what's *not* the same between offline and online...

it's so sad that you guys waster your time like this...

when I have won this ages ago....