SOL9: Workshop Updated

If you saw my post yesterday, you know I am a co-moderator of a workshop on women’s activism and gender rights in Eastern Europe. Our next speaker was scheduled for this coming Friday the 13th. I’m not (really) superstitious, but that should have given me pause.

            Our speaker was planning to come from Turkey, where she is doing field research. Last

night she e-mailed me to ask whether NYU was still accepting international visitors, because she had noticed that some U.S. institutions were canceling events with international people. Today I checked with the NYU center, where our workshop is hosted, and at first the communications the Center had received were inconclusive; it was “recommended” that such events be postponed or canceled, but the school was still open. But my contact at the center was not confident that this was the final call, especially since Columbia University and Barnard College (in the neighborhood where I live) had announced they were closing their campuses for Monday and Tuesday and would re-evaluate after that. So perhaps NYU would also close, especially since its spring break is next week.

            I decided to let our speaker decide whether it was worth it for her to come all the way to the States on the off-chance that perhaps NYU would be closed when she arrived.

            Later this afternoon, however, NYU sent out a new announcement. Now all non-essential events are requested to postpone or cancel, and all classes are to be held remotely from Wednesday on. (NYU also has its spring break next week.)

            So I had to inform our speaker that her presentation was canceled. Perhaps she can be rescheduled in the future, but we’re full up this spring, and who knows whether we’ll be able to hold our April and May workshops. Stay tuned...

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I’m participating in the 13th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 9 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!