Finally I’ve found a few minutes to update my webpage with new information about my academic whereabouts. The last few months have been quite a whirlwind (which also explains why I did not encounter any time to take up the subject of the Nicaraguan uprising again):

First, I worked for a company that offers German language classes for migrants in the Eastern part(s) of Germany. I really enjoyed giving these classes as they consisted of small groups of people who were surprisingly motivated to improve their language skills albeit the fact that they had been ordered to do the class and would rather search for jobs full time or care for their families.

The colleagues and conditions were great but I was craving a little more intellectual input and thus had also applied for jobs at universities, in spite of the uncertainty this kind of profession entails in Germany at the moment.

In August I was happy to start at the Institut für Hochschulforschung (Institute for Research in Higher Education) at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg as a Research Associate, warping me into the unknown galaxies of higher education research, empirical sociology and consulting. Didn’t see that one coming in my career path. But it seems that for once interdisciplinarity is indeed king/queen.

Anyway, I have begun to read into literature on higher education (principally colleges and universities) and enjoy the productive atmosphere at the institute, which is not located at Halle, but forms part of only a few branches of the university that sit in Wittenberg. Founded in 1502, Wittenberg’s alma mater (known as Leucorea) was merged with the university of Halle in 1817, and is represented in today’s university logo (see above) on the right side. Seems to be a safe bet to be on the right side. Let’s see if that’s an omen.

Postscript: At least in my reading, I was able to connect the phrase “on the right side” on three different occasions in this post. Just in case you want to attempt to retrace my thoughts.