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The next walking seminars will take place on 1st October 5th November See you there!

This time, we travelled in many senses. We travelled by train from Amsterdam Centraal to Baarn, foot from Baarn to Hollandsche Rading, and by train again from Hollandsche Rading back to Amsterdam Centraal. We also talked about travelling , more precisely, how to make our work travel. Here are the questions. May they travel far... The questions: although you may have a nice supervisor, just writing for her/him is not what you always dreamt about – you would like to reach a somewhat larger Audience. Very good. So let’s talkwalk about what might be good ways of doing so – given the parameters of your topic, research questions etc. what is the story or the point in/of your work that is most to dear and important to you? what/who is the implied ‘enemy’ of your work and/or what would change if your audience would believe you? do you write as if you want to convince your enemy? bystanders? or do you write for your intellectual friends? when to do what? what about writing for 'the big...

The bad thing about the walking seminar is that, in order to participate, bodies have to be present at specific places at certain times. The good thing, however, is that the question, we discuss while walking, travel very easily. So, this is what we discussed the last times: Writing about what it not good. Detached. Calm. Angry. Sad. Argumentative. Empathic. Clinical. What else? Which difference does it make whether this non-good seems irreducible (e.g. we all die) or someone’s fault (e.g. X killed Y) or puzzling (e.g. why did Y die?) or a social fact (e.g. Y lived in a country in war or with lack of food) – or something else yet again? Neglect, failure, disaster, agression, what have you... How do you know, assess, judge, feel, find out – that in your field you hit upon something that is ‘not-good’? What are interesting examples in the literature of ways of writing about what is not good? What makes them interesting? And the month before: Comparing: what is it to compare? What do ...

‘Dutchness’ as an effect of walking Rogier wrote that we were walking in the ‘heart of Dutchness’. But what is ‘Dutchness’? The polders? The windmill? The light? Great work on the question on difference is currently undertaken by Amade M’charek . In looking at ‘race’ and ‘Dutchness’, she conceives of differences not as given, but as effects that come about in relational practices. In that sense, walking enacts a very specific version of ‘Dutchness’. Vorarlberger Boden Dutch Soil What do you wear? Hiking boots – all other kinds of shoes would be dangerous Whatever you like – from hiking boots to flip flop How do you get there? Take the car for, at least, half an hour in order to go from 500 meters to 1000 meters or 1500 meters above sea level. Take the train for 15 minutes. What do you see? In the beginning trees, later other mountain ranges, in the end...

On this last walk Annemarie took us to the heart of dutchness: the polder. We made a roundabout near Breukelen . As we talked about how to write about bad things and how to relate to them, we passed more than one icon of Dutch landscape engineering . On our way... Flat... Corridor At this point reflections about the landscape hit upon the issue of Dutch light. This documentary on Dutch Light is highly recommended: Dutch Light . Obligatory Group Pose Too much? The next Walking Seminar will be on June 11, 13.50. For more info, please email Anna Mann, A.M.Mann[at]uva.nl

After three successful episodes we've decided to start a Walking Seminar Blog. Mainly to put pictures up, but also to broadcast what we do and why it is so much fun. In short, The Walking Seminar is an monthly walk, hosted by Annemarie Mol, during which we talk-walk about various issues concerning academic work. So far, we dealt with comparing and writing about things that are not good . The idea is that talking-while-walking enhances thinking in ways not attainable behind a desk or in a seminar sitting down. Everyone is more than welcome to attend: please email Anna Mann