Remember, y’all — all of my stories are jumbled, and none are entirely current or literally true; I am a sculpted skull on a stela at Copán and I am not talking about any one individual in particular. Still, perhaps we just shouldn’t hire any more Latin men unless they are married, as this tribe … More Advice to New Faculty, e to the nth
The reason life in my main subunit was unstable and underdeveloped in those days was not because it was culturally Mediterranean but because we were a colonized people. If I had time I would study our political culture with dependency theory. I am betting the analysis would be apt, illuminating, and amusing. The subunit was … More A New Use for Dependency Theory
Of 30 students none knew the year of the US Declaration of Independence. They placed it between 1876 and 2006. Axé.
The way to make friends and influence people in your favor is not to guess where battle lines may lie and and attempt to butter up someone who has been in the place longer against whoever you imagine, or even know they disagree with. No matter how much I may disagree with someone or agree … More Yet More Advice to New Faculty
My family will be on the street if I cannot place this manuscript! is the place that primordial research fear comes from and I understand it very well — likely better than you know. Still I want to say that when I started to hear that anti-research drumbeat — you should not be interested in … More Et encore…
I suppose the reason people find research so stressful is that that is what they will be evaluated on. I understand completely. I do not mean to suggest teaching is not valuable. Remember, I even think administration is valuable and in thinking that I truly transgress. I do mean that I am tired of the … More That Research Stress
It seems that the Brontës had two older siblings, Maria and Elizabeth, who died due to poor conditions at the boarding school upon which Lowood (in Jane Eyre) is modeled, after which their father took the other girls out. Branwell had not had to go to boarding school. Of the remaining four, Charlotte lived to … More In the 19th Century
All right, here are the characteristics one must have as a professor, from what I have been told since age three, when I chose my PhD program, but especially since age thirty, when I finished it. A true professor must have: – Boredom with research, dislike of writing, difficulty publishing, yet great activity in these … More What is Hard for Me
So it would be my bad luck to run into one of our newer faculty members last night, who wanted to go on at me further about how bad the freshmen and sophomores are, and I said: Look, I understand your feelings and I share them, but this issue is not something I think about … More On Venting and Spouting
It is agreed, then: research and writing are not hard, if you are trained for them. The much harder aspects of academic work are: – dealing with anti intellectualism from various quarters – dealing with gender discrimination which is much more extreme in certain kinds of schools and also families – the backbreaking labor of … More That Administrative Answer
