You work here

By now I've started working, a bit, but everything so far has been pretty laid-back and informal. I had minimal information coming here so I pretty much just put aside the fact that I had no idea what I would be doing and hoped for the best. So, here is what I have so far. I work at the Faculty of Islamic Studies (FIN--those are the initials in Bosnian) which is loosely connected to the University of Sarajevo. I learned that it is technically related to the University but during communism, since any religion was illegal and the University was run by the state, FIN was shut down and made into a museum of sorts. But today there is a loose affiliation. (Sidenote: It is interesting that that is the information that I heard from my faculty because after talking with one of the local Fulbright scholars he said that Tito reopened FIN and that that is always the go to case-in-point example of how tolerant Tito was and how open he was to religion.)

Anyway my contact there, Mujesira, is fabulous and now that I've actually met her and spent a bit of time with her I know it's going to go just fine. My first meeting with her she made an appointment for me to meet the dean and vice dean. It was very impressive but neither of them

spoke English or really had any questions for me so it was basically just Mujesira and me speaking in English in front of them. FIN had equally little information about me and they seemed a bit nervous that I did not have a master's degree... but welcoming nevertheless.

The building itself is beautiful and it was built in 1887. It was, of course, restored since the war in the "new Moorish" architecture style. The Faculty has three departments: theological studies, religious education, and imame. I am teaching the exercise section of the English language course for first year students in each department. The students have two other sections of English class with a Bosnian professor. Each class is 45 minutes long which is just under half of the length of the classes I taught last year. So far, the students have a very wide range of language ability. Almost all of them had English classes in madressa (Islamic high school) but that doesn't seem to be any kind of a guarantee of their English language ability.

(This is the courtyard that I can see from the window of my office. On the right, just out of view is the mosque.)

My first class were the imame. An imam is (in the broadest sense) a leader of an Islamic community, so these students are in university so they can be a certified imam when they graduate. However, in class they are a group of 13 eighteen-year-old boys. Sooo the first class was pretty funny but not much got done. When I was asked how this class went, I told the truth, that they were harmless enough but definitely rowdy. The response was more or less that the students of other departments work harder so if the imam students don't want to learn, you can't force them. My next class was the theological students and the largest class of 36, thankfully, with six young women. Again, there is the same wide range of ability but on a larger scale.

(This is the courtyard that my and all of the other offices surround. Both students and staff meet here, hang out, study, have coffee, etc.)

When I'm not teaching, I try to still come in to FIN becaaauuuse I have an office! I had no idea that I would have one and it's really nice with 3 chairs, computer (with internet), and a printer.

So I come in and work on my research, mostly reading, and hang out a bit and try to talk to a few people a day just so that I'm there. So far, it's a great set up--what's not to like about teaching just over 2 hours a week and reading the rest of the time? As the rest of the school gets settled in I may also teach a conversational class to some of the teaching assistants. Outside of the University, I might also teach a conversational class for judges. We shall see.

(Get excited for "Let's go pick up apples", "Meeting with my boss", and "The few, the proud, the...")