The promise I made at the end of my last post notwithstanding, I guess I haven't done a very good job in indulging in blog-related exhibitionism lately. Without question, it was a busy semester, but a pretty good one. Unlike the first semester, when I only had to teach one class, in the Spring semester I taught my full load of two classes—one on Turkey, and one on the Russian Empire. In the Fall I'll be teaching the Turkey class again, as well as a new (100-level) class on the modern Middle East.

Here are some photos from the past few months:


Bridger Bowl, outside of Bozeman


Beautiful March day


View from Bridger


Big Sky


More BS


The way the clouds press down upon the mountains here, I often feel like I'm on the very top of the world

I'll be doing a fair bit of traveling this summer. Next week I head to Michigan for a few days, and from there head to Istanbul. After a few days there I'll fly up to St. Petersburg, where I'm spending a month in June and July. In St. Petersburg I'll be doing some research and, hopefully, a fair bit of writing.

After my month in Russia finishes up, I'll be in Istanbul again and then in Barcelona, where I'm presenting at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies. After the conference wraps up, I'll head back to Turkey for a while before returning to the US in early August.

I'm looking forward to the trip, but it'll be a drag to miss out on just about all of a Bozeman summer. Bozeman, I've discovered this year, is very cool—I'll miss it.