Digital Humanities
In this video Digital Humanities Prof. Susana Torres proposes a new approach to the humanities because, she says, today’s students are iconic – they learn from what they see.
This is just one of several reasons she believes that in this digital era the humanities matter more than ever.
Prof. Torres specializes in medieval Russian literature and culture, focusing particularly on the survival of oral tradition or lore and the endurance of cultural models, as well as on the theory of literary genres. She has conducted her research in Cambridge, Paris and Columbus (Ohio).
She has published extensively on medieval Slavic culture and literature. Part of her research undertaken in recent years is the subject of her latest book “A Quest for Glory: Heroism in Medieval Russia” (Slavica, Bloomington, Indiana) due out shortly. She is currently working on a new book.
The Fens
The most amazing thing is that when you talk to IE Business Schoool Strategy & Human Resources Prof. Ken Dubin the first thing you notice is that he is supremely competent when talking about serious stuff. Then, as soon as the conversation turns to other matters, serious or not, you realize that he continues to be extremely competent as well as displaying an incredibly serious ironic sense of humour!!
He says that the projects that get him up in the morning are those promoting networks that are both curiously inventive and collectively reflective. And those projects can be anywhere.
In this video he talks about The Silicon Fen and asks himself the question of how could Cambridge, a sleepy, if brilliant college town, become a world center of applied scientific innovation? Talent attracts talent –he says.
A moment in wine
It would appear that IE Law School Dean Javier de Cendra is passionate about everything he does. The same passion he showed in Maastricht when I filmed him talking about the role Europe still has to play in this world shines through as he talks about Chilean wine, with a special focus on the Viña Pérez Cruz label.
It looks like his passion for wine goes back a long way because when I asked him about when he had his first ever glass of wine he was very elusive…
I hope you enjoy finding out about this particular passion of his and about this fine Pérez Cruz wine.
Spelunking
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems, while speleology is the scientific study of caves and the cave environment.
Well, spelunking is what we did with Operations Management Professor Fabrizio Salvador, exploring the Valporcuero Caves in Leon, Spain. He says that nobody would like to live a life where everything is known beforehand. Uncertainty allows us to learn and opens up opportunities. It can even be fun – if managed properly!
I fairly battled my way through the cave while Prof. Salvador used the experience to blithely offer a great explanation of how the job of operations management is to specify how we go from A to B with the resources at hand.
I have to confess that the filming of this video, although very interesting, was goddamn tough!! Jumping, diving, rappelling, climbing etc., while filming and trying to make sense of everything… It was all I could do to keep myself from slipping down some rocky slope!!!
P.S: If you want to experience spelunking, try naturocio.
Another Season
Cross-Cultural leadership Prof. John Clendenin talks about wolrd hunger, world peace…and recites Haiku in Saint-Croix, Virgin Islands.
As you probably know, Martini Shot is a Hollywood term that describes the final shot set-up of the day. According to Dave Knox, author of the film industry slang guide Strike the Baby and Kill the Blonde, the Martini Shot was so named because “the next shot is out of a glass”, referring to a post-wrap drink. But we didn’t have a Martini. Instead we had a local specialty, a cocktail named Painkiller with a capital P. I think the name says it all. As if this weren’t enough, Cross-Cultural Leadership Prof. John Clendenin dedicated this Haiku to a friend of mine who is passionate about plants and seeds:
Seeds
Plant seed within you
to nourish your heart
provide roots…for your dreams
John is pretty impressive in terms of both heart and mind. He was rescued from a life of street gangs when he was a kid, made a start as a yellow taxi driver in New York, and then served in the US marines as a telecommunications officer for years. He represented the US Marines in international competitions in track and field events, wrestling and basketball, and was a sport psychologist with the 1984 US Olympic pentathlon team. He went on to become a professor at Harvard, where he wrote one of the best selling business cases ever. He’s a member of Mensa, and is still a senior sniper instructor, as well as teaching at IE Business School and writing a haiku every day… You get the idea.
P.S. Saint-Croix in the Virgin Islands is a hub for the global crossing fiber optic network, which in plain English basically means that the internet connection there is “just awesome”, to quote Prof.Clendenin.
