With some effort — not inordinate effort, mind you, but some — I have put together a two year long speaker series for my other department. That is eight outside speakers a year, four per semester, for two years, for a program that has no budget of its own. I have done this for the … More On Getting By
What I wrote several months ago: I really like my research projects but I am chronically impeded in them by my unhappiness as a professor. As a professor I have tended to have jobs and lived in places that were not only professionally unsatisfying but also psychically unsafe for me. Repressing my flight instinct is always … More Labor Day I
A la fin tu es las de ce monde ancien Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin Tu en as assez de vivre dans l’antiquité grecque et romaine [Apollinaire] It is the weekend, and I am singing that I shall not visit Greek or Roman antiquities but Caddo ones. Later I … More Alcools (1912)
Whiteman (lecturing severely): At third year review, you will not just be reviewing me — I will be reviewing you. By that time I expect you to overhaul the undergraduate curriculum to my taste, add a new graduate program and have housed in the department an additional journal. If you have not provided these things … More Oxalá
In my foreign language class we have a thick textbook, a workbook, a lab manual, three websites, CDs, DVDs, PowerPoint slides, and videos. It is not yet clear to me how well these materials fit together or to what extent they repeat each other. It may take me more than this semester to learn. I … More The Textbook Industrial Complex, or, The Baroque Era
‘This old man,’ I said at length, ‘is the type and the genius of deep crime. He refuses to be alone. He is the man of the crowd. It will be in vain to follow; for I shall learn no more of him, nor of his deeds. The worst heart of the world is a … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Edgar Allan Poe
A GENERAL QUESTION Is this only my bad luck, or is it a trend — new professors, graduate students somewhere last year, who (a) refuse to write their own grant applications because that is “administration,” (b) have, however, big ideas for administrative and service projects in related to their fields that they think I should … More Heu Mihi
coldhearted scientist وداد 