Day 4 in Canada started not soo early as the previous days (remember I work nights, so getting up before the sun is not a fun thing), but I attended a great panel in the late morning aka 10:30am on ‘Using Art and Technology to Teach IR.’ A funny, weird thing happened at the panel. So I am waiting for it to start and one of the presenters looks really familiar, but I could not place him until they introduce him. Turns out it was Dr. Jack Holland who I follow on Twitter and whom I started following on Twitter last year during the ISA conference. Its weird to see people that you follow on Twitter live and in person. Anyways, he had a really interesting talk on ‘Virtual Literacy in Politics and IR using The West Wing’. The other really cool talk from that panel was by Dr Cai Wilkinson on ‘Russian Politics Explained by the Spice Girls: Trailling Task-Based Learning in the International Relations Classroom” and how he used assignments like press briefings, SWOT analysis, storyboards, etc in his classes. So after lunch with Madeline, I attended the my last panel of the ISA conference on ‘Diplomacy, Cooperation, and International Security’ and one of the presenters was Susan Alaniz who is in my PhD program. Susan’s talk was on “International Security Corporation: Does Military Assistance Promote Military Stability.”
After checking out of the hotel (I moved hotels my last night in Toronto- to be near the airport and my 630am flight home and they had a moose Mountie in the lobby!), I had a wonderful dinner with my favorite Bolivian-Canadians Claudia and Mark who live in Toronto. It was great to finally meet children (last time I visited them they only had one child – the four legged furry and much beloved Agatha, who is now in kitty heaven) and their new kitty Lulu.
-
- Lulu
