A Year in Review for the Ronin Institute: 2022

Yet another year in our rearview mirror. Looking back at last year’s Year in Review, I had written:  “Here’s our wishlist for 2022: prototyping a Ronin College, implementing a membership management platform, hosting more Interest Group Pluses, kicking off an invited speaker series, organizing a mentorship program for Scholars, developing an institutional evaluation approach, finalizing …

Sustainability at the Ronin Institute

By Research Scholar Oumaima Ben Amor What we innovate, invent, advance, or know today started off as research fueled by our curiosity. Research is an essential phase in the understanding of problems and challenges which involves the development of new ideas and solutions. It has long shed light on the global threats that we are …

Our Ronin Institute home at 10 years

By Research Scholar Emily Monosson, first published in the May 2022 issue of Kitsune Welcome! You’ve stumbled across the launch of the good ship Ronin Blog, the official blog of the Ronin Institute. Updates here will cover developments at the Ronin Institute, as well as topics of potential interest to independent scholars everywhere – or …

Ronin Research Scholars

A Year in Review for the Ronin Institute: 2021

Looking back on last year’s 2020 Year in Review, it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come. The Ronin Institute is really hitting its stride. We know more about who we are, what we want to be, and what “re-inventing academia” means to us: creating a place where all scholars who seek Truth with Empathy …

Thumbs up by Kevin Gale

Ronin Institute Principle: Opt In

This series of blog posts introduces some of the guiding principles that we use at the Ronin Institute to help the community be its best. Our last post was on Art of Hosting. Opt In is all about seeking permission and consent first, instead of assuming that people say Yes.  Opt In is actually a pretty challenging principle to follow because …

Artwork by Koola Adams

Ronin Institute Principle: Art of Hosting

This series of blog posts introduces some of the guiding principles that we use at the Ronin Institute to help the community be its best. Our last post was on Pay it Forward. In our Code of Conduct, we emphasize an individual’s right to their “peaceful enjoyment” of participating in the Ronin Institute. Here’s one key thing …

Ronin Institute in Numbers

At our Ronin Institute Holiday Party in December 2020, we had a trivia game asking attendees to guess the quantity of some of our accomplishments for 2020. Here are the questions and answers. How many Kitsune Newsletters did the Ronin Institute Communication Working Group publish this year?  5 (in 2019: 0) How many new Research Scholars joined the …

A Year in Review for the Ronin Institute community: 2020

It’s safe to say that this is a year that will not easily be forgotten. Let me count the ways: COVID-19 (!!), waking up to the reality of racism, political exhaustion by the one who shall not be named, and about a decade of economic breakdown all happening in one year. But there is a …

Ronin Institute Principle: Pay it Forward

This series of blog posts introduces some of the guiding principles that we use at the Ronin Institute to help the community be its best. We build long-term sustainability into the Ronin Institute by planning our activities and their maintenance so that they can be done as easily as possible by us, and with the least …

Ronin Institute Working Groups vs Interest Groups: What’s the Difference?

Working Groups (WG) focus on key elements of the Ronin Institute. They are an important part of the Governance structure for our Institute, because they offer one way (but not the only way!) for Ronin Research Scholars to participate in the running of the Institute (part of our “Everybody drives a truck” philosophy). Each WG …