professor

Professor Glen A. Jones appointed new OISE dean

Toronto, ON – Professor Glen Jones, interim dean of the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, has been appointed dean of OISE for a five-year term effective July 1, 2016. Professor Cheryl Regehr, vice-president and provost of U of T, announced the appointment on May 19, following an extensive international search for […]




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Rotman School Professor and Former Dean Named as Most Influential Management Thinker in the World

Toronto, ON – A professor and former Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management was named as the number one management thinker in the world by Thinkers50, the premier ranking of global business thinkers. Prof. Roger Martin, the former Dean of the Rotman School from 1998 to 2012, received the honour during […]




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University of Toronto law professor awarded notable $225,000 Trudeau Foundation Fellowship

TORONTO, ON –  Professor Kent Roach, Wilson-Prichard Chair in Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, was awarded an esteemed Trudeau Foundation Fellowship today, worth $225,000, in recognition of his outstanding scholarly and pro bono contributions in constitutional, human rights and anti-terrorism issues. The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is an […]




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The New World of Work: HBS Professor Linda Hill

Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill, the author of “Being the Boss” and a researcher of global strategy and agile organizations, gives her thoughts on adapting to meet the demands of the new work environment.




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The Professor: A Toast to Decorative Spherical Ice

Homes, restaurants, bars, and businesses rely on clear, clean ice for many applications. Ice is considered a food source, and the water that makes the ice must be of good quality. Good quality water will produce a crystal-clear, hard piece of ice.




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SMU City Perspectives with Associate Professor Michelle Lim

As the climate crisis looms, how can we build a more sustainable future? While the establishment of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) provides a helpful compass to achieve sustainability, they tend to be viewed and applied in isolation from each other. This glosses over what sustainability really means for those most vulnerable to its impacts. In this podcast, SMU Associate Professor Michelle Lim demystifies the dense jargon of the UN SDGs, and argues how viewing them as a set of integrated and interconnected goals is essential to empower us to chart a meaningful path forward for the planet and people. [About the SMU CP Podcast Series] SMU City Perspectives brings together researchers from Singapore Management University (SMU) for insightful conversations exploring the pivotal trends in digital transformation, growth in Asia, and sustainable living. Get inspired and discover solutions that will help you drive more impact in your work and shape the future of cities.




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SMU City Perspectives with Assistant Professor Aidan Wong

As the effects of climate change continue to grow, the world is more aware than ever about the concept of being sustainable. Most people's entry point to sustainability consists of the ‘Three R’s’, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The question is, what makes waste reusable and recyclable? And what role does informal labour have to play in this journey to sustainable living? In this podcast, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies (Education) at the Singapore Management University, Aidan Wong, explains his research on the value creation process within e-waste recycling networks, including the role of the karang guni, in Singapore and Malaysia. [About the SMU CP Podcast Series] SMU City Perspectives brings together researchers from Singapore Management University (SMU) for insightful conversations exploring the pivotal trends in digital transformation, growth in Asia, and sustainable living. Get inspired and discover solutions that will help you drive more impact in your work and shape the future of cities.




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SMU City Perspectives with Associate Professor Terry van Gevelt

Because of climate change, cities have been grappling with stronger and more frequent storms as well, most recently being Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam and Hurricanes Helene and Milton in America. But many people remain apathetic to climate change. SMU Associate Professor Terry Van Gevelt explains the intricacies of climate change communication and what needs to be done to get urbanites facing climate change to become more aware. . [About the SMU CP Podcast Series] SMU City Perspectives brings together researchers from Singapore Management University (SMU) for insightful conversations exploring the pivotal trends in digital transformation, growth in Asia, and sustainable living. Get inspired and discover solutions that will help you drive more impact in your work and shape the future of cities.




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Professor Isidro: Software is about People!

Jim Grisanzio from Java Developer Relations talks with Francisco Isidro from the Federal University of ABC in Sao Paulo, Brazil about teach Java to computer science students. You can find Professor Isidro on Twitter @prof_isidro. You can find Jim @jimgris on Twitter.





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Professor Albert Zomaya

Professor Albert Zomaya




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Law Professor On Misdemeanor Offenses And Racism In The Criminal System

The police killings of George Floyd , Eric Garner and other black men and women began with allegations of a minor offense, such as passing a counterfeit $20 bill or selling individual, untaxed cigarettes. Misdemeanors — these types of low-level criminal offenses — account for about 80% of all arrests and 80% of state criminal dockets, says Alexandra Natapoff, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of Punishment Without Crime . "It's surprising to many people to realize that misdemeanors — these low-level, often chump-change offenses that many of us commit routinely without even noticing it — make up the vast majority of what our criminal system does," Natapoff tells NPR's Ari Shapiro on All Things Considered . "The offenses can include everything from traffic offenses to spitting, loitering, trespassing, all the way up to more serious offenses like DUI or many domestic violence offenses," she says. "It's ... the vast majority of ways that individuals




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Editorial: A weak policy at CU allows coaches or professors to pursue sex with students

"Professors, coaches, and other University of Colorado employees are technically allowed to use their positions of authority to develop intimate relationships with students and athletes."




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Princeton Professor Ruha Benjamin awarded MacArthur ‘genius’ grant

The MacArthur Foundation honored Benjamin for her critical analysis of how technology perpetuates inequality and for ‘championing the role of imagination in social transformation.'




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Howard Stone named University Professor at Princeton

Stone is a leading engineering scholar and pioneer in fluid dynamics research. University Professor is Princeton’s highest honor for faculty.




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Author of new Stevie Nicks book is a Princeton professor who loves 'Tusk,' studies Tchaikovsky

Simon Morrison, author of the new musical biography "Mirror in the Sky,” is a professor of music and Slavic languages and literatures, and a sought-after lecturer in the humanities.




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Prominent law professor blames Harris loss on ‘white supremacy’ and ‘toxic masculinity’

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump easily carried many predominantly Hispanic rural areas like Hidalgo County, Texas, and some mostly non-white precincts, such as mostly Asian areas of Brooklyn. As journalist Josh Kraushaar noted, “Trump carried PASSAIC County, New Jersey. Majority/Hispanic electorate and home to a sizable Orthodox Jewish constituency. Was a Dem stronghold for […]

The post Prominent law professor blames Harris loss on ‘white supremacy’ and ‘toxic masculinity’ appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.




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Professors cancel classes in response to Trump winning the 2024 election

Professors at many Ivy League universities canceled classes the day after the election — some because they were unhappy that Donald Trump won, and others because they believed that students needed to “recover” from the election. The Harvard Crimson reports that “Courses such as Sociology 1156: ‘Statistics for Social Sciences’ and Applied Math 22a: ‘Solving […]

The post Professors cancel classes in response to Trump winning the 2024 election appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.




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Professor Sir Laurence Martin (1928-2022)

Professor Sir Laurence Martin (1928-2022) News release NCapeling 3 May 2022

Professor Sir Laurence Martin, director of Chatham House from 1991-96, has died aged 93.

Professor Sir Laurence Martin, director of Chatham House from 1991-96.

Professor Sir Laurence Martin was one of the UK’s leading experts on international security with a particular interest in nuclear strategy.

Before joining Chatham House, he was Professor of War Studies at King’s College, London and Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University. He was also appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear as well as holding several distinguished professorships.

His most well-known work was Two-Edged Sword: Armed Forces in the Modern World which was also the subject of the BBC’s Reith Lectures he gave in 1981.

Sir Laurence led Chatham House as the world was entering the post-Cold War era, a time when international relations were in a state of flux which, as he wrote in International Affairs, provided grounds for optimism that ‘the objective conditions exist to eliminate violent and mutually harmful conflict at least between the major powers’.

Professor Martin worked hard to ensure the financial sustainability of the institute following the loss of core funding from the UK government in the 1980s. By modernizing its approach to fundraising, he was able to invest in a much-needed refurbishment of the House, as well as the institute’s first foray onto the internet.

This enabled Chatham House to communicate with new audiences beyond its members, event attendees, and readers of printed reports, The World Today magazine, and International Affairs journal. He paid particular attention to the need for the institute to communicate its ideas to those making policy as well as wider audiences.

In addition to strengthening the institute’s research, he was keen to continue engaging its members in discussions to develop a well- informed understanding of international affairs.

On the 75th anniversary of Chatham House in 1995, he wrote that its role was ’providing the evidence and, above all, encouraging the habit of mind, to facilitate prudent, if possible optimistic, but never utopian judgements about world affairs’. Today’s staff would agree this role remains at the heart of delivering the institute’s mission.

Selected works




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Podcast: The Power of Viral Stories, with Professor Robert Shiller




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Penn College IT professor presents at national conference

Sandra Gorka, professor of computer information technology at Pennsylvania College of Technology, recently addressed a national conference for IT educators.




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Penn State mathematician Paul Baum named Atherton Professor

Paul Frank Baum, Evan Pugh University Professor of Mathematics at Penn State, has been honored by Penn State with the title of Atherton Professor. The University created the Atherton Professorship to recognize the continuing high level of scholarly or creative activity Evan Pugh Professors may pursue after their retirement.




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Lu Bai named Verne M. Willaman Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Lu "Lucy" Bai, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and of physics has been selected as the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.




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Hazleton engineering professor's solar solution cuts costs for energy provider

Penn State Hazleton Associate Professor Joseph Ranalli developed a method to identify mislabeled equipment in solar plants by analyzing cloud motion, significantly reducing labor and costs for a large energy provider and enriching the educational experience for his engineering students by demonstrating real-world applications of data analysis. His collaboration with Principal Research Engineer Will Hobbs from Southern Co. has resulted in the publication of two articles and open-source software. 




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Distinguished professor in plant nutrition retires after long, impactful career

Jonathan Lynch, distinguished professor of plant nutrition, retired this fall after an innovative and impactful 33-year career in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, focused on conducting research to alleviate world hunger and enhance crop production by subsistence farmers in developing countries.




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Penn State Altoona English professor featured in international poetry festival

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, professor of English at Penn State Altoona, will be featured in the 55th annual Poetry International Festival in the Netherlands. The event will take place June 12 through 15, 2025.




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Penn State Altoona professors host podcast on Appalachian folk horror

Penn State Altoona faculty members Brian Onishi, associate professor of philosophy, and Jeff Stoyanoff, assistant professor of English and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, released a new episode of their podcast, “Horror Joy,” titled “Appalachian Folk Horror: ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Old Gods of Appalachia.’”




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Penn State Altoona professor’s book reviewed by Wall Street Journal

Brian Black’s newest book, “Ike’s Road Trip: How Eisenhower’s 1919 Convoy Paved the Way for the Roads We Travel,” has received a full review by Mark Yost for the Wall Street Journal.




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IST distinguished professor to present McMurtry Lecture on Nov. 7

James Z. Wang, distinguished professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, will present the college’s annual McMurtry Lecture at noon on Thursday, Nov. 7, in E202 Westgate Building at Penn State University Park.




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Penn State Law professor of legal research receives service award

Rebecca Mattson, head of faculty and research services and professor of legal research at Penn State Law in University Park, was recently awarded the prestigious 2024 Service Award by the Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.




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Scranton kinesiology professor Gina Gray wins Accessible Syllabus Competition

Penn State's Campus-wide Accessible Syllabus Competition highlights the importance of accessibility in higher education and the University's new tool in Canvas — Anthology Ally.




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Penn State Scranton professor receives NSF grant to study white dwarf stars

Agnes Kim, associate professor of physics at Penn State Scranton, has received a National Science Foundation grant aimed at enhancing the understanding of white dwarf stars.




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Ryan Reynolds addresses Eddie Murphy's Oscar snub for 'Nutty Professor'

Ryan Reynolds shares views on Eddie Murphy's Oscar snub for 'Nutty Professor'Ryan Reynolds has recently expressed his disappointment over the Academy Awards for overlooking Eddie Murphy’s performances in Nutty Professor.Speaking on Variety Awards Circuit podcast, the Deadpool & Wolverine...




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Remembering Our Colleague Professor Calestous Juma

Our colleague Calestous Juma—who passed away on December 15 at age 64 after a long illness—was a pioneering, prolific, and influential scholar/practitioner in science and technology policy for sustainable well-being. He joined Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 1999 as Director of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Project (a joint venture of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Center for International Development) and became Professor of the Practice of International Development in 2002, a position in which he maintained his exceptional productivity and engagement with policy, despite illness, up to the time of his death.




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After Backlash, Harvard Professor Holds Tense Conversation on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Tarek Masoud, who questioned Iriqat’s views of Oct. 7 and how a two-state solution could be achieved during the event, said in an interview later on Thursday that he was “reasonably confident and hopeful” the discussion was an opportunity for learning, and added he appreciated that Iriqat “did not deny the atrocities of Oct. 7.” Understanding the Palestinian perspective is critical for moving toward peace and a two-state solution, Masoud said. Masoud and Iriqat agreed to discuss her controversial social media posts during the dialogue. Iriqat said that she did not intend to justify the violence on Oct. 7, which included kidnappings of children and elderly, beheadings, and massacres of civilians, but meant to place the attack in the context of a decades-long conflict. She was intensely critical of Israel throughout the conversation, saying the “settler-colonial project started 76 years ago.”




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NEW DATA EVALUATING THE BOSTON SCIENTIFIC ELUVIA� DRUG-ELUTING VASCULAR STENT SYSTEM DEMONSTRATE 94.4 PERCENT PRIMARY PATENCY RATE AT NINE MONTHS - Hear from Professor Stefan M�ller-H�lsbeck, M.D., PhD, M

Hear from Professor Stefan M�ller-H�lsbeck, M.D., PhD, MAJESTIC trial principal investigator




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A Book Needs Space: The Craft of THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR by Yoko Ogawa

I took a break from my craft series for a couple months. And then I handed in the first draft of a new book this week! Which means that this weekend I can finally turn my attention to writing about craft in The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa.

Yoko Ogawa's slender, stunning book, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder, is a challenging one to use as a writing lesson, because while I can describe a hundred smart and wonderful things about it, that doesn’t mean I know how to translate its beauty into advice to other writers. It’s not helpful for me to say, “See how perfect this is? Now go do that." 

And it is that kind of book, the kind that pulls you into a narrative dream and holds you there so gently, with such soft hands, that it's hard to figure out how you got where you are. When did it happen, and how?

For me, it had already happened by the time I'd gotten to the end of page 3. And I think that the "how" has something to do with a sense of spaciousness.

What do I mean by a sense of spaciousness? Well, it's pretty hard to nail it down exactly, but I've been considering this a lot, and I think it has to do with a combination of things. One is unflowery, unfussy prose. Another is revelation of character through brief, searing lines of plot or observation. (You know those beautiful moments in books when a single sentence seems to capture the essence of a character, and just like that, you feel like you can see into their soul?) Another is a gentle, no-rush kind of pacing. Another has to do with themes that lend themselves to spaciousness. And another is the way Ogawa hooks this story into two real-world entities that have power, meaning, and spaciousness outside any book: mathematics and baseball.  

You didn't think this was going to be simple, did you? :o) The Housekeeper and the Professor is a book that seems spare and uncomplicated as you read it, but I think it's deceptively so. There's a lot packed into its 180 pages. The reader who feels suspended in a narrative dream is actually perched on top of a lot of strong, invisible foundations. Today I'll try to look at those foundations a little closer.

I'm not going to harp on the unflowery, unfussy prose, because I think you'll see that for yourself when I share examples from the text. Instead I'll talk first about the revelation of character, then get into pacing and themes, then say a little about the allusions to mathematics and baseball.

All page references are to the 2009 English-language paperback edition published by Picador.

First, a brief overview, with no spoilers: A housekeeper is assigned to work in the house of a professor of mathematics who lives in a small city on the Inland Sea. The professor, who's sixty-four, sustained a brain injury in an automobile accident seventeen years ago and lost his ability to form new memories. "He can remember a theorem he developed thirty years ago, but he has no idea what he ate for dinner last night" (5). He can only remember new things for eighty minutes. 

As a consequence, every morning, when the housekeeper arrives at the home of the professor, she's a stranger to him, as is her son who often accompanies her. And every day is predictable in some ways, yet thoroughly unpredictable in others. 

Told from the perspective of the housekeeper, the book is about the inner lives and growing relationships of four people, all of whose real names are not used: the housekeeper; her son; the Professor; and the professor's sister-in-law, who lives in the main house across from the professor's cottage. The book contains small, quiet, satisfying revelations. You learn more information about all of the characters over time. But the journey is as satisfying as the destination. This is one of those books where I wasn't reading to find out what happens; I was reading for the pleasure of spending time with the book.

Now, let's talk about character.

In the hands of a clunky writer, a character's inability to form new memories would be a gimmick. There are no gimmicks here. Almost from the first line, these are people you believe in, with thoughts and dilemmas that suspend you in a state of wanting, along with these characters, to understand what it means to be human. 

Here's how the book opens:

We called him the Professor. And he called my son Root, because, he said, the flat top of his head reminded him of the square root sign.

"There's a fine brain in there," the Professor said, mussing my son's hair. Root, who wore a cap to avoid being teased by his friends, gave a wary shrug. "With this one little sign we can come to know an infinite range of numbers, even those we can't see." He traced the symbol in the thick layer of dust on his desk.

 

This opening is the first of many times when the Professor embarks on an explanation of a mathematical concept. You, the reader, might immediately groan, thinking, Oh no, he's going to lecture, he's going to mansplain math… But only two pages later, on page 3, our narrator, the housekeeper, addresses that concern with this description:

But the professor didn't always insist on being the teacher. He had enormous respect for matters about which he had no knowledge, and he was as humble in such cases as the square root of negative one itself. Whenever he needed my help, he would interrupt me in the most polite way. Even the simplest request—that I help him set the timer on the toaster, for example—always began with "I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but…" Once I'd set the dial, he would sit peering in as the toast browned. He was as fascinated by the toast as he was by the mathematical proofs we did together, as if the truth of the toaster were no different from that of the Pythagorean theorem.

It's this description of the Professor peering in as the toast browns, caring about it as much as he cares about everything else, that captured my heart on page 3. With that tiny act, Ogawa shows us something essential about the Professor's character. And Ogawa repeats this method of revealing character over and over again, sharing small, isolated moments of searing revelation.

Here's another example of a small moment, one where we learn the Professor's particular, yet socially clueless, sympathy toward children:

Just then, there was a cry from the sandbox. A little girl stood sobbing, a toy shovel clutched in her hand. Instantly, the Professor was at her side, bending over to comfort her. He tenderly brushed the sand from her dress.
Suddenly, the child's mother appeared and pushed the Professor away, picking the girl up and practically running off with her. The Professor was left standing in the sandbox. I watched him from behind, unsure how to help. The cherry blossoms fluttered down, mingling with the numbers in the dirt. (46-47)

I'm not sure the professor understands what's just happened in that moment, but we do. And we can see him and feel for him (at the same time as we might feel frustrated with him).

Here's one more, shorter example: "I wondered how many times I had said those words since I'd come to work at the Professor's house. 'Don't worry. It's fine.' At the barber, outside the X-ray room at the clinic, on the bus home from the ballgame. Sometimes as I was rubbing his back, at other times stroking his hand. But I wondered whether I had ever been able to comfort him. His real pain was somewhere else, and I sensed that I was always missing the spot" (169-170).

Maybe when I use the word "spacious" to describe this kind of characterization, what I mean is that nothing is crowded, every detail is illuminated and clear, and allowed to be the star of the scene it's in. Every description is given the space it's needed. As a result, the characterizations seem clean and spare, but not because the characters are simple people with simple lives. They are complex people with difficult, tragic, sometimes frightening lives. But we can see them clearly, because Ogawa draws them with precise lines on a spacious page. 

I almost want to say that it's like each character is standing alone, visible to us in a bright, uncrowded room, but that makes the characters and the book sound sterile, which is completely wrong. In fact, they live in rooms full of things, especially books, papers, baseball cards, and food. And their lives, thoughts, and feelings are deeply entangled. But reading this book, the reader does not feel entangled. The reader has room.

This is partly because Ogawa gives every moment in this story the same weight as any other part of the story. The moment with the browning toast, for example, is just as important as other longer, more emotionally fraught scenes in the book. And this gets us into pacing. 

This book is composed of a lot of different kinds of passages. Tiny plot moments, like the Professor watching the toast brown. Longer scenes, like one where Root gets injured and the Professor and the housekeeper rush him to the hospital; one where they all go to a baseball game together; one where they have a party. Passages where the housekeeper is musing about the life of the Professor; passages where she's doing a little snooping in the Professor's house, hoping to learn about his past. Occasional passages where the housekeeper is telling us something about her own past. Also, lots and lots of passages about math.

Pacing isn't something I can demonstrate using short examples, because it depends upon how all the parts of the text sit in relation to each other. But I can try to explain what Ogawa does, and what it's like to read: She simply and straightforwardly lets every passage take as much time and space as it needs. It's okay if a math explanation fills up several pages. It's okay if some of the most beautiful and revealing character moments for the Professor — like his ability, every afternoon, to see the evening star before anyone else can (page 79) — take less than a page. There's a way in which the weight of any one part of this book has nothing to do with its length. All the different needs of the text are balanced in their significance. 

How does a short description manage to carry as much weight as a many-paged scene? I think it's partly because of what this book is telling us — its themes. Browning toast is, in fact, as important as the Pythagorean theorem. The housekeeper tells us so. A child is as important as a mathematician. A moment when a man with a brain injury is sad and confused is as important as the most fundamental mathematical discovery. Everything is connected, everything matters, and everything gets to take up space.

One thing I took away from the pacing of this book is that I want to try to worry less about the moments when my text feels uneven. I'll always listen to feedback from my readers when it comes to my pacing — but ultimately, there are other aspects of a text, particularly its style, mood, and themes, that can bind seemingly disparate parts of a book together. Maybe that's something I can talk about more sometime using one of my own books. It comes down to a book being a web, and that's a really complicated thing to try to talk about!

Here's another interesting thing Ogawa does with pacing: While it becomes pretty easy, pretty quickly, for the reader to know who the Professor is, this makes a fascinating contrast with the other characters in the book, who come into focus much more slowly. Especially the housekeeper herself, who's the narrator, but who's always talking about everyone else, hiding herself in the background (much like a housekeeper). Honestly, it took me a while to even notice the housekeeper as a character. And then I began to care about her experience deeply.

A lot of our revelations about the housekeeper's character relate to math. With a quiet, patient kind of wonder, the housekeeper absorbs every math lesson the Professor gives, and we see what that's like for her. We watch it touch her daily life—and reshape her entire outlook. 

"There was something profound in his love for math," the housekeeper says. "And it helped that he forgot what he'd taught me before, so I was free to repeat the same question until I understood. Things that most people would get the first time around might take me five, or even ten times, but I could go on asking the Professor to explain until I finally got it" (23).

Just as the Professor explains math to the housekeeper, Ogawa explains it to the reader, and explains it well; we understand it because we're sharing the housekeeper's growing understanding of it. Consequently, we can understand the way it's changing the housekeeper. One day, while cleaning the kitchen, she finds a serial number engraved on the back of the refrigerator door: 2311. Unable to help herself, she pulls out a notepad and gets to work trying to figure out whether this is a prime number. "Once I'd proved that 2,311 was prime, I put the notepad back in my pocket and went back to my cleaning, though now with a new affection for this refrigerator, which had a prime serial number. It suddenly seemed so noble, divisible by only one and itself" (113).

Later, she reflects on the relationship between math and meaning: "In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make even the tiniest fragment our own, to bring it back to earth" (124).

(It's worth mentioning that this book's sense of spaciousness is also aided by descriptions of actually spacious things. It's hard to imagine something more spacious than infinite lace!)

Slowly, we watch the housekeeper's relationship with the Professor—and with math—change her entire concept of herself. Here, the Professor has just watched her cook dinner with utter fascination and respect: "I looked at the food I had just finished preparing and then at my hands. Sautéed pork garnished with lemon, a salad, and a soft, yellow omelet. I studied the dishes, one by one. They were all perfectly ordinary, but they looked delicious—satisfying food at the end of a long day. I looked at my palms again, filled suddenly with an absurd sense of satisfaction, as though I had just solved Fermat's Last Theorem" (135).

Honestly, the mathematics in The Housekeeper and the Professor is one reason it's tricky to use this book as a craft lesson. It's clear Ogawa has enormous mathematical expertise, which breathes life and meaning into this story — but not many writers are going to have that expertise at their disposal, and not all stories can be about math. I also wonder what it's like to read this book if you're indifferent to math, or even hate it? Baseball, which is extremely math-based, plays another huge part in this book — I wonder how the book reads to people untouched by both math and baseball? I happen to adore both; I lap up baseball movies and math plays like Arcadia or Proof with the purest joy; so it's impossible for me to imagine reading this book from the perspective of a baseball-hater or a math-hater. It's hard to imagine that reader having the same experience I'm having.

Nonetheless, the point remains that Ogawa is harnessing the essence of other disciplines, math and baseball, and using them to expand her story — and it works for a lot of readers. It creates a kind of magic similar to Victor LaValle's use of fairytales in The Changeling. Things that we understand in a different context, like math or fairytales, can expand the meaning of realities that otherwise don't make sense, or hurt too much. Like a person who's lost a part of their brain that they need in order to make new, sustained relationships. Or a housekeeper who's been alone, unsupported, and unappreciated for most of her life.

And here again, Ogawa makes spacious choices. Is anything more spacious than math? Math defines space, and the infinity of space. And one of the complaints most often brandished at baseball is that there's way too much empty space in the game :o). Math and baseball serve as themes helping to create the book's spaciousness.

So. I'm not convinced that this post is the most useful entry in my craft series, especially for any of you looking for nitty-gritty writing advice. But I do hope you'll read Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor, and maybe my thoughts will combine with your own to help you come to some conclusions. I'll end this post with a spacious image:

"As we reached the top of the stairs that led to the seats above third base, all three of us let out a cry. The diamond in all its grandeur was laid out before us — the soft, dark earth of the infield, the spotless bases, the straight white lines, and the manicured grass. The evening sky seemed so close you could touch it, and at that moment, as if they had been awaiting our arrival, the lights came on. The stadium looked like a spaceship descended from the heavens" (88).

Happy writing!

 

Reading like a writer.






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Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi: How is climate change affecting the future of the world?

Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, IWMI Research Group Leader - Sustainable and Resilient Food Production Systems, discusses the impact of climate change on the world's future, highlighting its effects and implications.

The post Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi: How is climate change affecting the future of the world? first appeared on International Water Management Institute (IWMI).




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Jadavpur University Professor Death: রহস্য! হাতের শিরা-গলা কাটা, উত্তরাখণ্ডে উদ্ধার যাদবপুরের অধ্যাপকের দেহ...

Jadavpur University: মৈনাক দুই বন্ধুর সঙ্গে উত্তরাখণ্ডের আলমোড়া বেড়াতে গিয়েছিলেন। লালকুয়াঁয় একটি হোটেলে উঠেছিলেন মৈনাক। শনিবার হোটেলের বাথরুম থেকে তাঁর দেহ উদ্ধার হয় ৪৪ বছরের অধ্যক্ষের দেহ।




professor

Creating Belfast : technical education and the formation of a great industrial city, 1801-1921 / Professor Don McCloy.

Dublin : Nonsuch, 2009.




professor

Professor Martin R. Cowie: Heart disease is still the world's biggest killer

Professor Martin R. Cowie is Professor of Cardiology, Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Royal Brompton Hospital, London. At WIRED Health 2018 he spoke about why heart disease reamins one of the world's biggest heatlh problems and what needs to be done to prevent it. ABOUT WIRED HEALTH 600 innovators, scientists and business leaders gathered at The Francis Crick Institute in London, for WIRED Health on March 26, 2019. Discover some of the fascinating insights from speakers here: http://wired.uk/health-event ABOUT WIRED EVENTS WIRED events shine a spotlight on the innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs who are changing our world for the better. Explore this channel for videos showing on-stage talks, behind-the-scenes action, exclusive interviews and performances from our roster of events. Join us as we uncover the most relevant, up-and-coming trends and meet the people building the future. ABOUT WIRED WIRED brings you the future as it happens - the people, the trends, the big ideas that will change our lives. An award-winning printed monthly and online publication. WIRED is an agenda-setting magazine offering brain food on a wide range of topics, from science, technology and business to pop-culture and politics. CONNECT WITH WIRED Events: http://wired.uk/events Subscribe for Events Information: http://wired.uk/signup Web: http://bit.ly/VideoWired Twitter: http://bit.ly/TwitterWired Facebook: http://bit.ly/FacebookWired Instagram: http://bit.ly/InstagramWired Magazine: http://bit.ly/MagazineWired Newsletter: http://bit.ly/NewslettersWired




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College Professor Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty

Dartmouth college professor Chandrasekhar Ramanathan has been tasked to explain the concept of quantum sensing to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.




professor

Tech Support - Robotics Professor Answers Robot Questions From Twitter

Robotics professor Henny Admoni answers the internet's burning questions about robots! How do you program a personality? Can robots pick up a single M&M? Why do we keep making humanoid robots? What is Elon Musk's goal for the Tesla Optimus robot? Will robots take over my job writing video descriptions...I mean, um, all our jobs? Henny answers all these questions and much more. Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey Director of Photography: Jeff Smee Editor: Ron Douglas Expert: Henny Admoni Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Eric Martinez Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila Camera Operator: Alex Grant Audio: Robert Buncher Production Assistant: Maria Bosetti Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Andy Morell Special Thanks: Human And Robot Partners Lab at Carnegie Mellon University




professor

UMass Professor Explains the Internet in 5 Levels of Difficulty

The internet is the most technically complex system humanity has ever built. Jim Kurose, Professor at UMass Amherst, has been challenged to explain the internet to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.




professor

Tech Support - Harvard Professor Answers Happiness Questions From Twitter

Harvard professor and "How to Build a Life" columnist Arthur C. Brooks answers the internet's burning questions about "happiness." Does anyone else feel depression after completing a goal? Can social media cause depression? Do we get happier as we age? What is the true meaning of happiness? Arthur answers all these questions and much more. For more on Arthur Brooks, you can find a copy of his New York Times Best Selling book, From Strength to Strength at your favorite book retailers nationwide and on Amazon.com. Follow Arthur on social media for daily happiness content Instagram - @arthurcbrooks Twitter - @arthurbrooks LinkedIn - @arthur-c-brooks TikTok - @arthurcbrooks YouTube - @arthurcbrooksofficial Receive email updates from Arthur Brooks Sign up at http://arthurbrooks.com Director: Justin Wolfson Director of Photography: Jim Petit Editor: Louville Moore Expert: Arthur C. Brooks Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Brandon White Production Manager: Eric Martinez Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila Talent Booker: Mica Medoff Camera Operator: Dan Jacobs Audio: Tim Haggerty Production Assistant: Conner Pennington Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Andy Morell




professor

MIT Professor Explains Nuclear Fusion in 5 Levels of Difficulty

Nuclear fusion underpins some of the most basic processes in our universe and holds the promise of virtually limitless, clean, carbon-free energy. Dr. Anne White, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been challenged to explain the nature of nuclear fusion to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.




professor

Harvard Professor Explains Algorithms in 5 Levels of Difficulty

From the physical world to the virtual world, algorithms are seemingly everywhere. David J. Malan, Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, has been challenged to explain the science of algorithms to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert. Director: Wendi Jonassen Director of Photography: Zach Eisen Editor: Louville Moore Host: David J. Malan Guests: Level 1: Addison Vincent Level 2: Lexi Kemmer Level 3: Patricia Guirao Level 4: Mahi Shafiullah Level 5: Chris Wiggins Creative Producer: Maya Dangerfield Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Kameryn Hamilton Production Manager: D. Eric Martinez Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila Casting Producer: Vanessas Brown; Nicholas Sawyer Camera Operator: Brittany Berger Gaffer: Gautam Kadian Sound Mixer: Lily Van Leeuwen Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola Hair & Make-Up: Yev Wright-Mason Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Lauren Worona




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Tech Support - Medievalist Professor Answers Medieval Questions From Twitter

Professor of English and Medieval Literature Dr. Dorsey Armstrong answers your questions about the Middle Ages from Twitter. Why is it called the "Middle" Ages? What activities did people do for fun? How were animals tried in court for crimes? Answers to these questions and many more await—it's Medieval Support.Director: Lisandro Perez-ReyDirector of Photography: Constantine EconomidesEditor: Alex MechanikExpert: Dr. Dorsey ArmstrongLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon WhiteProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteCasting Producer: Nicholas SawyerCamera Operator: Christopher EustacheSound Mixer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Kelsey BarnhartPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Andy Morell




professor

Tech Support - Professor Answers Ancient Greece Questions From Twitter

Professor of Ancient Greek History Paul Christesen joins WIRED to answer your questions from Twitter. What do we know about the original Olympics? How did Ancient Greece elect leaders? Is the film ‘300’ accurate? Was there a huge outdoor statue of Athena in Acropolis as in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? What exactly did we lose when the Library of Alexandria burned? Why did ancient Greeks place a coin in the mouth of the recently decesased? These questions and plenty more are answered today on Ancient Greece Support.




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Materials Horizons Emerging Investigator Series: Professor Zhengbao Yang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Mater. Horiz., 2024, 11,1830-1831
DOI: 10.1039/D4MH90031F, Editorial

Our Emerging Investigator Series features exceptional work by early-career researchers working in the field of materials science.
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