New blog from Professor Marvin

If you're interested in what Dr. Carolyn Marvin the Frances Yates Professor of Communication, is up to this year in India, you can check into her new blog, Darsan in Banaras. Professor Marvin is a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. Her research will focus on religious and national practices in public space. She elaborates in her first blog post:

"The topic is an adventure for me, combining long-standing interests in ritual communication associated with both religion and nationalism, and public space as an arena of social and cultural production, and taking these to a non-Western culture where these things are inextricably linked."

Though brand new and just sort of warming up since Professor Marvin has yet begin her Indian adventure, the blog is already a joy both visually and verbally. I particularly enjoyed her description of teenage skate boarders in Philadelphia and, in another post, being introduced to Rahu, a mythical Indian sun-eating dragon who is all head. Good stuff.

Following this blog is a good way to learn about India in general, think about communication issues in a different culture, as well as observe firsthand how a veteran communication scholar takes the role of novice in another land to observe and conduct research with a fresh lens.