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Plant Biology lecturer Laura Almstead, left, answers student questions after class. Survey of Biochemistry was one of the College's open classrooms Oct. 5 during Homecoming.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 20: President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C), President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev (4th R), President of Nigeria Muhammed Buhari (4th L), President of Guinea Alpha Conde (3rd L), Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (L), Iran's First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri (2nd L), Vice President of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla (3rd R), Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Egypt Hamdi Loza (R) attend the signing ceremony of "Memorandum of Understanding" agreement, which is signed by Secretary-General of D-8 Seyyid Ali Muhammed (front R) and Vice President of the Islamic Development Bank, Mansur Muhtar (front L), between D-8 and Islamic Development Bank at Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Center during the 9th D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation Summit in Istanbul, Turkey on October 20, 2017. Elif Ozturk / Anadolu Agency
Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil
War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.
This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.
They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.
But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.
This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.
Where the Thinkers Go
They gather where the dust has settled,
where books whisper in the hush of halls.
Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,
cradling centuries of questions.
They drink coffee like it’s ink,
trace words like constellations,
follow Rilke into the dusk,
where solitude hums softly in the dark.
Outside, the world is fraying—
war threading through the seams of cities,
the weight of history pressing forward.
Inside, they turn pages, searching
for answers, for solace, for fire.
And somewhere between the lines,
between time-stained margins and fading ink,
they find the ghosts of others who
once sought, once wondered, once read—
and they do not feel alone.
Three Haikus
Night falls on paper,
books stacked like silent towers,
thoughts burn in the dark.
Tea cools in the cup,
a poem lingers on lips,
war rumbles beyond.
Footsteps in silence,
the scent of old ink and dust,
pages turn like ghosts.
ooOOOoo
The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025
In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.
Here is what they read.
1. Existential and Philosophical Works
In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.
Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)
Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)
Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)
Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)
Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)
Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)
These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.
2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience
Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.
Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)
Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)
Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)
Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)
Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)
Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)
These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.
3. Political Thought and Social Critique
Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.
Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)
Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)
Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)
Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)
Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)
These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.
4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning
In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.
Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)
James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)
Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)
Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)
These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.
Edwidge Danticat read from her work and then joined with Aja Monet in a conversation as part of the Lannan Foundation's Readings and Conversations series live at the Lensic Theater.
Wednesday 27 March 2019
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Learn more about this event here.
Subscribe to Lannan Podcasts here.
Photo copyright Don Usner. For use, contact donusner@lannan.org.
(Photos by Karl Weisel)
German and American students tour Wiesbaden Army Airfield as part of Frankfurt's Understanding project -- a year-long partnership between the city of Frankfurt, the U.S. Consulate and the Gateway Gardens to create a memorial to pay tribute to the decades of German-American friendship at the former housing area at Rhein Main Air Base.
(To download and save an image, click on a photo, then the Actions drop down menu, View all sizes, and then download the large size of the photo.)
“In my experience, I’ve seen the impact that both education and art can have to change life trajectories. I’m pleased to dedicate my time to both.” - Damian Brown, Youth Projects Coordinator, Peacebuilders
Beyond his work with Peacebuilders, Damian is an active volunteer and actor. He’s performing in “I Need to Know My Father,” playing at select theatres throughout Ontario.
Artwork inside CSI Regent Park
Experts believe that we are in a moment of change, when only the agreement serves and warn of the danger of continuing to start the confrontation in the middle of the crisis We think we are special, but we are not. The aggression in the Spanish political debate is not new, nor is it recent. […]
tv6.news/2020/05/31/understanding-pain-and-not-contractio...
"Understanding the Attack Surface and Attack Resilience of Project Spartan's New EdgeHTML Rendering Engine"
by Mark Vincent Yason
Understanding Macbeth's mind takes on a whole new meaning in Second Life! While designed for literature students studying in their first language, there are possibilities for second language learners as well. We'll explore the island, look at actual student assignments, and talk about ways to use this environment, and others like it, with language students.
virtualmacbeth.wikispaces.com/
Crow riding.
Please read more on my latest blog post!
I would love feedback from photographers of all skill levels!
Fun with Aperture, Shutter Speed and Metering!
The photo on the left was shot with auto exposure. The entire hallway appears darker than real life because the exposure is compensating for the brightness of the opening ahead.
The photo on the right was shot by metering the area of the wall above the opening, changing the shutter speed until the meter indicated a correct exposure, then recomposing the picture to straight ahead. Because I metered the light reflecting off the walls of the hallway instead of straight ahead toward the opening, the walls of the hallway are better exposed.
Both taken with ISO: 800; Aperture: f/1.8.
Shutter Speed
Photo Left: 1/2500 sec
Photo Right: 1/640 sec
Clearing out the loft today. Came across a binder full of these:
I had them at school, probably in my second year, which would be late 1967 or early 1968.
Beautiful. hand drawn artwork from before the age of Photoshop.
Packed full of explanations of all the basic scientific principles. I learnt an incredible amount from these.
17 May 2012, Rome, Italy - FAO Director-General José Graziano Da Silva and Fahad Bin Abdulrahman bin Sulaiman Balghunaim, Minister for Agriculture, Saudi Arabia, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), FAO heaquarters (Australia Room).
©FAO/Giulio Napolitano.FAO. Editorial use only. Photo credit must be given.
Fore more info visit: www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/143127/icode/
Understanding the Essence of Flowers - Exploring Pollen 12-14th
June, 2013, Helsinki
Photo: Tommi Taipale
136th Airlift Wing Airmen and their families took part in KUDOS, Kids Understanding Deployment Operations, a mock deployment event that helps children understand deployments and the 136AW mission, Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas, Sept. 10, 2016. The event was sponsored by the Carswell Family Guardians.