| |||
| Date: Sun 2/28/2010 | |||
| Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM | |||
| Padmasana or Lotus Pose is a key pose for sitting, whether for a pranayama (breathing) practice or for meditation. It is also a difficult pose for many to master, proving challenging for the hips, knees, and ankles. In this workshop we will practice different kinds of poses to prepare ourselves for Padmasana. You will learn a safe, non-aggressive, but productive method for working towards Padmasana. If the pose is already accessible to you, you will learn how to work more deeply in it, and how to work towards some of the Padmasana variations. We will experience what qualities in this pose make it well-suited for a practice of pranayama or a meditation practice. | |||
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Padmasana Workshop at the Yoga Garden in San Francisco
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
January seminars in Paris
4 upcoming seminars at the EHESS in Paris, plus one lecture at University College London:
At the EHESS:
1) In Rose-Marie Lagrave's seminar on "Genre et sciences sociales," Thursday, January 14, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. salle 1, 105 bd Raspail. Topic: "L'étude critique de la sexualité. Représentations, catégories, et la production des sens et des savoirs."
2) In Rose-Marie Lagrave and Eric Fassin's seminar, "Etudes de genre et de sexualité," Friday, January 15, 1 p.m to 5 p.m., amphithéâtre François-Furet, 105 bd Raspail. Topic: "L'invitée de Simone de Beauvoir et les sexualités proprement innommables."
3) In the seminar of the Groupe de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur l'Histoire du Littéraire, Tuesday, January 19, 5 p.m to 8 p.m., CRH (105 boulevard Raspail), salle 7. Topic: "Sexualité et champ littéraire, France - XXe siècle."
4) In Judith Lyon-Caen's seminar, "Les usages sociaux de la littérature au XIXe siècle," Friday, January 22, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., salle 507, 54 bd Raspail. Topic:"Sur les ratés de la Famille. La vie contextuelle et les apports ethnographiques des oeuvres littéraires."
On Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at University College London, 5pm, room 114, Foster Court Building: "Beauvoir, Duras, Context, Sexuality."
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
BKS Iyengar turns 91
Yoga Master BKS Iyengar turned 91 on Monday. In honor of the day, my friend Jarvis Chen, who teaches yoga in Cambridge, MA, posted some inspiring compilation videos he made a while back. Check them out!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Write the representatives again...
Dear Assemblymember Ammiano,
I wrote you a few weeks ago regarding budget cuts to the University of California, and to public education more generally.
Today I write as a faculty member at UC Berkeley, and one of your constituents, to comment on a quote in the San Francisco Chronicle from Assemblymember Julia Brownley. She argued that the campus protests at Berkeley and the other UC campuses last Thursday involve only an issue of how the University has cut its budget:
"'The state is facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis,' said Julia Brownley, a Santa Monica Democrat who chairs the Assembly Education Committee. 'The students are protesting how the university cut its budget. The Legislature left that up to the university.'"
As someone who attended that event, I can assure you that is only a small part of the story. Faculty and students are deeply distressed about the declining commitment of the state government in support of California's unparalleled tradition of public education. The UC system has long served as a cultural, scientific, and economic resource for the State of California, the preeminent example of access to the highest quality of education for all students, regardless of their background.
While the budget cuts imposed from UCOP are painful, the fundamental issue for which we are fighting is the restoration of support from state government, and our voters, for public education at all levels: K-12, community colleges, CSU and the UC. Please support education and the future of California. Please listen to our message more carefully than your colleague Julia Brownley seems to have done.
Respectfully yours,
Michael Lucey
Professor of French and Comparative Literature
Chair, French Department
UC Berkeley
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Template for a letter about the University of California crisis
Senator Mark Leno
State Capitol
Room 4061
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Dear Senator Leno,
I write to express my concern about the current state of public education in California, and in particular about the crisis at the University of California, Berkeley, where I am a professor.
On a purely personal level, the furloughs at UC that begin on September 1, 2009 and will last for a year will result in my pay being cut by 8% for the year. As chair of a department, I am all too conscious of the amount of pain and anxiety the furlough plan will be causing to my co-workers, staff and faculty alike. Many of us will see a serious reduction in our quality of life. There are those of us who will simply no longer be able to make ends meet.
The University of California at Berkeley is one of the most renowned universities in the world. It cannot continue to be so with inadequate support from the state of California. What a tragedy it would be for the state to lose this amazing resource! At the current level of funding, it is not just the quality of life of the university’s diverse employees that has been diminished. (And there have been many employees laid off as well.) The educational experience available to our students is now also being impaired, as is the ability of the faculty to pursue research effectively. I urge you to work to see that state funding for the University of California becomes a high priority.
Everyone recognizes that the crisis at Berkeley and at the University of California more generally is part of a wider crisis affecting every level of public education in California and many other public services as well. Because of this, I also ask you to commit to working to reform the budget process in the state of California, and in particular to find responsible ways to generate more revenue, and a more stable stream of revenue, to support public education and other public services.
In particular, I would ask that you support and work towards:
--a sensible revision of Proposition 13 that would remove the requirement for a 2/3 majority to approve tax increases and that would rethink in a sensible way the way property tax levels are set, especially on commercial properties;
--a removal of the requirement for a 2/3 majority to pass the state budget;
--the generation of new revenues, for example through the creation of an oil severance tax and perhaps the reinstatement of the vehicle licensing fee;
--a serious rethinking of the corrections budget of the state and serious reform of sentencing requirements to help reduce the prison population;
--a rational reform of the proposition process, which provides only the most grotesque illusion of democratic participation.
Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters.
Sincerely,
Michael Lucey
State Capitol
Room 4061
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Dear Senator Leno,
I write to express my concern about the current state of public education in California, and in particular about the crisis at the University of California, Berkeley, where I am a professor.
On a purely personal level, the furloughs at UC that begin on September 1, 2009 and will last for a year will result in my pay being cut by 8% for the year. As chair of a department, I am all too conscious of the amount of pain and anxiety the furlough plan will be causing to my co-workers, staff and faculty alike. Many of us will see a serious reduction in our quality of life. There are those of us who will simply no longer be able to make ends meet.
The University of California at Berkeley is one of the most renowned universities in the world. It cannot continue to be so with inadequate support from the state of California. What a tragedy it would be for the state to lose this amazing resource! At the current level of funding, it is not just the quality of life of the university’s diverse employees that has been diminished. (And there have been many employees laid off as well.) The educational experience available to our students is now also being impaired, as is the ability of the faculty to pursue research effectively. I urge you to work to see that state funding for the University of California becomes a high priority.
Everyone recognizes that the crisis at Berkeley and at the University of California more generally is part of a wider crisis affecting every level of public education in California and many other public services as well. Because of this, I also ask you to commit to working to reform the budget process in the state of California, and in particular to find responsible ways to generate more revenue, and a more stable stream of revenue, to support public education and other public services.
In particular, I would ask that you support and work towards:
--a sensible revision of Proposition 13 that would remove the requirement for a 2/3 majority to approve tax increases and that would rethink in a sensible way the way property tax levels are set, especially on commercial properties;
--a removal of the requirement for a 2/3 majority to pass the state budget;
--the generation of new revenues, for example through the creation of an oil severance tax and perhaps the reinstatement of the vehicle licensing fee;
--a serious rethinking of the corrections budget of the state and serious reform of sentencing requirements to help reduce the prison population;
--a rational reform of the proposition process, which provides only the most grotesque illusion of democratic participation.
Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters.
Sincerely,
Michael Lucey
How to contact your California state legislator
You can find out who represents you by entering your home address at http://www.legislature.ca.gov
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