By David Perry - Chronicle Vitae. Last month I shared some tips on how to get ready for a teaching position abroad. Now it’s time to talk about how to get settled once you arrive.
At first you'll probably go through a honeymoon period: Everything about your new home will feel lovely and charming. After some time, however, you'll likely experience what the French call dépaysement, the feeling of not being in one's own country. Going abroad—especially if you go by yourself—means being away from the networks of support that family and friends provide. A language barrier and new culture can heighten feelings of isolation, so it's important to look after your own emotional well-being. See more...

By Suzanna Danuta Walters. When I came out, at 16, in those fashion-challenged late 70s when tweedy jackets and pinky rings had to do hard labor in signifying lesbian identity, my (liberal) mother sent me to a shrink before she began her queer re-education and joined the cause, righteous pink triangle pinned on her ample bosom. I knew not one other gay kid, there were no support groups in my high school, and I felt so very alone until I blissfully discovered gay bars, gay bookstores, and the gay movement. Now my 19-year-old daughter (after a high-school career of being the "s" in gay-straight alliances) seems to imagine she gains street cred by claiming queer provenance and goes to a college where gender bending is just another day and creative pronouns business as usual. More...

By Richard Ekman. A proposal for a detailed federal database of all college students has once again surfaced, the brainchild of researchers who believe that a major purpose of colleges is to serve as data sources for their own studies, and of policy wonks who think that any nationwide effort worth doing must be owned and operated by the federal government. More...