NEW YORK TRIP

Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 14th Annual Conference (December 10, 2009)

I am a researcher with the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Organization - a global transdisciplinary network and fellowship of concerned academics and practitioners. The HumanDHS organizes two major conferences per year. The 14th Annual Human DHS Conference was held on December 10-11, 2009 (coincides with International Human Rights Day) at Columbia University, New York with the theme: Humiliation and Violent Conflict. The HumanDHS does not adopt a conventional conference style, however, I was invited to be a part of the roundtable discussions on both days of the conference.

I arrived in New York on December 9th by bus and made my way to Staten Island (my first visit there). Though I had a wonderful experience commuting for three days on the train-ferry-subway, something pick my curiousity. I instantly notice the filth and dark aspects of Staten Island. Coming from Vancouver, I was always stunned by the carelessness with which people threw dirt on the street. Waiting for the ferry every morning was also quite fascinating as I watched people throng on pushing anything that stood in their path. The last time I ever witnessed a "critical mass" gushing for a single entrance like so, was at Bank, King Cross or Victoria tube stations in England. Regardless, I looked forward to going to Columbia every day...it is an amazing academic institution, one I aspire to study/work with someday. I was able to use their free internet access in the Mailman library to work on my assignments and other school stuff I had to do.

A wee bit of information that might intrigue you, was how I marked all 25 students' essay assignments en route from Staten Island to Columbia University. Since the x-mas holidays was coming and I did not want to mark students' assignment then, I was compelled to do this...it was absolutely necessary as it made my vacation to California with my family, stress-free.