The neoliberal world and the corporate university have made an annoying appropriation of the verb “to learn.” To listen to advertising and infomercials is to “learn” or “learn more.” Training sessions on the use of Moodle and WebCT, or on the newest university policies, are “learning.” Now, my Coursera MOOC “invites” me to “visit” the … More Sobre el verbo aprender
…would look at the research university conceived as support of industry, with an emphasis on “productivity.” I am not at all opposed to work and production and I favor more of these and not less, but in this the product gets a distorted emphasis. The student’s putative need for improved study methods is conflated with … More An academic study of academic advice
“…you’ve got to stick to it with the energy of a benny addict.” This is the one phrase I like from On the Road and it is anti-Boycean, and it rejects the values of Reeducation. Axé.
I really will have to write my manual since I have so much to say. The question on advice is, what are the motives of the advisor? 1/ Sharing, and money. They are willing to sell expertise. Fair enough. 2/ Things people wish they had known: they wish to share experience and views. Of interest. … More Categories of academic advice
Here is what Rob Brezsny has to say to me this week — fortunately since I am going on vacation for FOUR DAYS, during which I will only do teaching related activity and no research. Let the boundaries blur a bit. Don’t stick too rigidly to the strict definitions. Play around with some good old-fashioned … More Still more on academic advice
The cultural identities consolidated by writers like José Vasconcelos, Fernando Ortiz, Nicolás Guillén, Gilberto Freyre, and Oswald de Andrade, and naturalized as national discourses from the 1920s forward, are derived from earlier formulations. But their cultural emphasis is new, as are their proclamations that the mestizo is superior rather than degraded. The mestizo nation of … More Let us see if this is less boring: 162 words
One difference between them — the ones who are not tenured or on the tenure track, and who are mad about it — and me is that they made enormous sacrifices to be in graduate school, in the form of moving across the country to some disagreeable place and taking out significant loans because inflation … More The new faculty majority
Notes on José Piedra, “Literary Whiteness and the Afro-Hispanic Difference,” part 2, and some strategies for reading critical essays: As you read, consider using a different color to highlight each of the following: → argument (logical inferences, grounds, warrants, examples) → new information → theoretical concepts What signals help you to identify these different threads … More A somewhat decent handout now, with help from Dame Eleanor
One of the results of adjunctification is that undergraduates meet few professors, if any, and many are officially advised by academic staff and who have not been faculty. As a result of this they have to pay for coaching on how to get into graduate school and things like that; there are services like The … More On adjunctification, coaches and consultants
I need a really good image of a great ship putting out to sea and I do not see the right one, so you will have to imagine it. I am embarking on a large solidarity project. As I am about to call for one in print, I have to model it. It involves wresting … More Le projet
coldhearted scientist وداد 