Adminis-trauma

2.5 hours emailing, 3.5 hours bureacrarate

So I've been called to task for the made-up word I use, "administrivia," to describe administrative/bureaucratic tasks that are nonetheless necessary to completing this project. Never has the ambiguous status of that term been more apparent than today, than when it's all I did, in preparation for my upcoming travels.

I'll be in Berkeley on Friday, so I had some bureaucratic work to do preparing for that. Principally, I need to bring my human-subjects material up to date in anticipation of traveling to Colombia to gather additional data. (I will want to interview a few Army and National Police officers regarding the security forces during La Violencia). After the U.S. government did medical experiments on African-Americans , universities and government came up with a series of protocols for treating "human subjects" with at least a modicum of dignity. (At least, that's how I read the makeup of the commission behind the Belmont Report, which included the president of the National Council of Negro Women).

So, it's bureaucratic work that's not trivial, 'cause I need it to be able to use any interview data I gather. I guess another made-up word is in order: how about bureaucratic karate, or bureaucrarate? Yeah, that's just as lame as it sounds....

Also, I'm going to two academic conferences, APSA and LASA, in the coming month, and I emailed a slew of professors and graduate students today to set up appointments. I have three so far, with a couple more pending to be set when I get back from vacation in two weeks.

I'm going to be out of town through August 25th, so this was preparation for my visit to Berkeley on Friday, and for the two conferences I'll be attending the two weeks after I get back. I look forward to a productive visit on Friday, when I'll post again, and to a relaxing week of vacation after that. Hasta el viernes!