I have been working on strategic plan for recruiting students and majors for one of my departments, in a very complex situation. My information on what is happening is incomplete and inconsistent, and I really wish I had the answer to certain questions. a/ What were the four reports the chair filed in defence of … More Lettre
The “state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death,” as Gilmore defines racism, has often intensified alongside the institutionalization of past social movements. I would like to get to the bottom of this. Axé.
New Orleans in the Atlantic world, that would be the course for me to give. There is this, but there is also much to say about things Spanish. I suppose I could allow research papers on topics such as “Sidney Bechet in Paris,” and here is Bechet’s complete discography. There is so much reporting on … More Katrina 10
There are large screen televisions everywhere and they report incessantly on the mass shooting of the day. I am reminded of the constant war reporting in 1984. By electronic mail on the home front, we are warned daily about a black man with an automatic pistol who has attempted an armed robbery at the edge … More The news in Oceania
The student said the school mascot was wimpy. “It is not a local symbol, and it is not even an animal, it is just a piece of fruit. What can a piece of fruit intimidate? Nothing.” The university spends money on such things, he went on, “but not on education.” The new sculpture in the … More Vignette
If we are to have student activity… CHAIR MUST MANAGE AND LIMIT THE POWER OF THOSE INSTRUCTORS WHO WITH ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT OR COMPLICITY HAVE: 1. Discouraged students from the major: stop putting them in a position to do so (get them out of 300 and 400 level courses where they have this kind of influence); … More Cut from my document, but it is so juicy
All last year I had been amazed that this particular student appeared to have become a born-again Christian. Now he has a new name and it is clear that in fact he has converted to Islam. Axé.
An important scholar keeps emailing this listserv I am on, questioning Manuela Picq’s statements that she was beaten by police during her arrest and detention last week. He says it is important not to distort facts and that researchers must be objective. I understand that, of course, but do not really understand him, and I … More Manuela Picq
Hobbes was the true, though never fully recognized, philosopher of the bourgeoisie because he realized that acquisition of wealth conceived as a never-ending process can be guaranteed only by the seizure of political power, for the accumulating process must sooner or later force open all existing territorial limits. He foresaw that a society which had … More Hannah Arendt
C’est donc en raison de ses faiblesses et non de ses réussites que l’université américaine présente une menace: tout l’invite à inventer d’urgence des solutions innovantes et, pour les rentabiliser, à les diffuser à l’étranger. L’Asie sera sa première cible, pour des raisons démographiques et économiques. Mais l’Europe sera également touchée si les Etats-Unis créent … More Ryan Craig
