AAUP

I do not know whether it will be interesting as this mural, but the new date for the annual meeting of the Louisiana Conference of the AAUP is April 21, from 12:00 to 3:00. The meeting will be held on the Tulane University campus, in the Faculty/Staff Dining Room of the Lavin-Bernick Center for University … More AAUP

Jazz Ambassadors

Always of interest to me are the ways in which folk and ethnic musics are deployed in the service of national projects. Penny M. Von Eschen’s Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Harvard, 2005) discusses one such case. From Brian Morton’s review (The Nation, June 27, 2005, 38-41): Between 1956 … More Jazz Ambassadors

Aventurera

Oso Raro illustrates his description of this blog with a still from Alberto Gout’s film Aventurera (Mexico, 1949). Actually Ninón Sevilla’s dress would fit me just right and is in my style. I like his general description of the blog, too: This blog is the most like poetry than any of the others here, a … More Aventurera

Acad-agonists

The pervasiveness of agonism, that is, ritualized adversativeness, in contemporary western academic discourse is the source of both obfuscation of knowledge and personal suffering in academia. Framing academic discourse as a metaphorical battle leads to a variety of negative consequences, many of which have ethical as well as personal dimensions. Among these consequences is a … More Acad-agonists

Labyrinth of a Faun

The Primary Contradiction and various commentators are suffering from self-doubt. It is always worth remembering that self-doubt, at least of the variety being described, is a result of oppression. In my para-Christian education self-doubt and humility were virtues, and they may be instructive indeed for the arrogant and the entitled. In other situations they are … More Labyrinth of a Faun