Dubai

OK, I've made it safely to Dubai, although I don't think I'll be posting much from Dubai. This is true partially because I'll only be here two days before heading on to China, but also because it's not a place that I find very interesting, which is ironic because it's the first international location I visited seven years ago and it's also the place I've visited the most (seven times). I think it's mainly because I'm a historian and there's not a lot of history here. That said, it's fascinating in its own way - and I suppose I would enjoy it more if I were younger and had lots of disposable income. It's also a perfect location for my Global Modules network because it is a society literally transforming itself, and one that, for all of its modern trappings, still is deeply conservative in other ways. I'm sitting at Zayed University for the Global Studies Conference, feeding off of the university's free wifi. Zayed is one of my foundational partner schools of the Global Modules network and they have been remarkably supportive of me.