Winnipeg, Canada I work and attend a commuter University. It’s in the heart of downtown, and in Winnipeg, downtown is not a thriving social hub. People don’t want to stay downtown after dark, nor do they tend to choose it as a place to socialize. For the most part, the campus community scurries back to their suburban neighbourhoods at the end of the day, and does their studying and socializing in those areas.

Connecticut, USA Photo: Afshan Jafar Afshan Jafar

Boston, USA.In the six years of teaching at my university, I’ve gotten to know my students on a variety of levels—the rather impersonal environment of the classroom, the closeness of international travel, and now, in a completely unexpected way, as future colleagues, as a mentor and, yes, as friends.

For women in the academy, one’s name is akin to a passport which under no circumstance must you tamper with. Your reputation as a scholar is attached to your name, which when subjected to a Google search, may yield only a few or a substantial number of hits depending on if it is correctly remembered or spelled. Unlike men, marriage pressures women to decide whether or not to make this changed civil status a separate “name reality” from their professional one. It is a tough choice to make.