Volcanic Ash Got You Down?

No matter how you pronounce it, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland has disrupted the plans of hundreds of thousands of travelers, many of them scholars and students.

* A group of Dickinson College students who were in Iceland to learn about thermal energy planned to take a ferry back to Britain’s University of East Anglia on Tuesday after the volcanic ash doubled the length of their planned five-day research trip.

* Fern Johnson, a professor of English at Clark University, is marooned in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where she attended a conference last week on multilingualism in Europe. She was supposed to fly out last Friday; now she’s crossing her fingers that she’ll depart this Friday.

With the end of the academic year looming, Ms. Johnson writes in an e-mail message that she is worried about the impact of her absence on students. But she says that she has suffered only minor inconveniences — like trying to find cheap food and bottled water in Dubrovnik.

From a scholarly standpoint, Ms. Johnson has enjoyed observing how her fellow travelers cope with the situation. “This whole experience is fascinating for its dynamic, multi-modal communication,” she writes. “Most interesting is the mix of old-style word-of-mouth communication, constant watching of CNN, BBC, e-mailing, and Facebook connections and information.”

* With four campuses in Europe, Webster University has been deeplly affected by the disruptions, says Susan Kerth, of the university’s Office of Public Affairs. Several staff and faculty members from St. Louis are stuck in London and Vienna, she writes in an e-mail message, and professors from the Geneva and Vienna campuses are stuck in St. Louis after attending a conference there.

“A professor from the London campus is stuck in Berlin with 30 of his students,” Ms. Kerth says. “Several American students studying abroad at our campus in Leiden (Netherlands) were visiting Webster’s campus in Vienna and are now stuck there as well.” Also disrupted: the annual Webster-Europe Soccer Tournament in Vienna.

How have your colleagues and institutions been affected? Tell us in the comments below. —Don Troop