A personal blog archiving 2020 Fulbright-Wu Jing-Jyi Arts and Culture Fellow, Dr. Nick Bowman (Texas Tech University, USA)
LUBBOCK, TX — It’s been nearly three weeks since being called back from Taipei to West Texas, and we’ve been making the adjustment well enough. Like so many of my colleagues all over the world, we’ve made extensive use of Zoom’s live-streaming capabilities — even more impressive, given how many others are also relying on…
LUBBOCK, TX — Teaching at NCCU has been a pretty rewarding experience so far. This week was a planned distance learning exercise—although I didn’t plan on that distance being nearly 8000 miles, the result of being called back to the US about four months early. Rather, the students were given a break from in-class meetings…
UNITED AIRLINES, FLIGHT 872 — Six hours from the US coast, and our flight has been turbulent. More turbulent than normal. Perhaps it’s a harbinger of what I can expect when I land. Rewinding 48 hours ago, and I was preparing for Jaime to arrive in Taipei. We’re a few weeks into the semester at…
MUZHA DISTRICT, TAIPEI — For about a week or so now, I’ve been bugged by a very annoying earache. Waking up with a bit of build-up and generally, feeling like I’ve gone for a sleep-swim every night. Fortunately, I’m one of the 99% of Taiwanese who are covered by National Health Insurance.
NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY, TAIPEI — Walking toward campus, a few final hurdles to clear. I’m up early and I’ve got a breakfast routine down. There’s a few coffeeshops dotting the campus perimeter: Starbucks, Louisa Coffee, and a really good spot on campus that I can’t quite seem to get the name of. They’re all pretty…
NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY — With delays due to COVID-19 concerns pushing us back one week, our first official day of the Spring 2020 semester at the National Chengchi University. I’ve been around universities for nearly 20 years, and the energy and excitement of a new semester never dull. The weather always seems a bit nicer,…
WENSHAN DISTRICT, TAIPEI CITY — No blogs for quite some time, as we’ve had a bit of a rough time with recent COVID-19 developments: the start of school was delayed, data collection plans are suddenly quite vague, and we’re adjusting course content for students unable to make it back to Taiwan. In the face of…
WENSHAN DISTRICT, TAIPEI CITY — A few days ago, I wrote about an afternoon over in the Ximending area, and some of the precautions that pubs and restaurants were taking against the 2019-nCoV: disinfecting customers, taking temperature readings, and generally just trying to make the best of an uncertain situation. It was a sunny Friday,…
WENSHAN DISTRICT, TAIPEI CITY — As we gear up for the scholarship ahead of us for the next six months, I’ve been pondering one aspects of my fellowship: an art installation in the Foundation for Scholarly Excellence offices here in Taipei. For a social scientist who largely engages publishes research based on statistical analyses, art…
WENSHAN DISTRICT, TAIPEI — As a non-native (Mandarin Chinese) speaker, living in Taiwan can be a bit isolating at times. So much of city is still inaccessible to me: billboards, restaurant ads, street signs, and the general hum of a metropolitan area quickly filtered out of my senses. I can’t make much sense of the…