s.r. in the Middle East

This photo of the ruins at Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon comes courtesy of Ray Brassier, who is now (as is known) at the American University of Beirut. Lebanon is one of the more beautiful places I’ve seen myself as well, though I’m afraid my last visit there was quite some time ago.

I was in Baalbek myself in December 2001. At the time, I think it was the furthest away from home that I had ever felt. (It has since been eclipsed in that honor by the trip to the Andaman Islands last year– hundreds of miles by air from Chennai means “pretty far away.”)

In any case, I’m always surprised that more Ph.D.’s aren’t more aggressively interested in teaching in places like Beirut and Cairo.