“But he was at once stigmatized ‘a doctrinaire’–the most damaging of insults–and several Frenchmen implied that as he was both a professor and a German he was hardly fitted to form an opinion on a matter connected with the limpid and elegant genius of southern France.” This goes on in so many FL departments still. … More On the timidity of professors
This post started out as a comment on this one; the original comment is now in that comments thread where it was intended to be in the first place. This post also follows this one, which follows on a CHE article to which I do not wish to relink. I will link to a useful … More An evolving post. Toward my post on choosing academic jobs, this is a post on the penchant for scolding in academic culture.
The proposed contract would allow the administration to remove faculty in cases of “the substantial curtailment or discontinuance of a program which removes any reasonable opportunity for using a faculty member’s services,” a “failure to meet professional responsibilities,” a “failure to perform academic assignments competently,” and a “financially based reduction in force.” Read the entire … More Wayne State University
I was going to use the phrase “on putting your heart into it” but it struck me that believing in it, if perhaps less accurate in certain ways, had the advantage of minimizing the Scouts leader tone. This is another post I do not have time to write today but it is about enthusiasm, actually … More On believing in it
The Chronicle now says we should “embrace our inner North Dakotan” and I disagree with most of the old, tired platitudes they reiterate in their article. But then, I am apparently unusual in that I know what I want and what I want, I want for realistic reasons, not for merely conformist reasons or prestige, … More On choosing a job
It again seems to me that work is easier to do than the other things one does in life, and that of work activities, the easiest is research. In graduate school the easiest research activity was writing, but at the moment I find it to be reading. Reading has become easier because I know more, … More In which I experience life as I did in graduate school and early assistant professordom.
Too tame a life, perhaps that is it. I would rather have the life of Sir Richard Burton, or someone like that. He, too, was a scholar. Notice, though, the vocabulary of debt and obligation that goes with academia. You did a Ph.D. People say the price you pay is to teach. You owe the … More “Too tame a life”
I must be an impulsive risk-taker, not quite in my right mind, and I was probably a victim of child rape although I do not remember it. I am distanced from the emotions I must surely have. Indeed, I am downright unfeeling. Why is this so? Because I do not exhibit the requsite fear of … More On race and gender policing
At the pool I ran into my ex’ other ex and we exchanged notes on our summer activities. “You have a nice life,” she said; “I did try to make this summer good,” said I. But in general I do have a pleasant life and it is because of having given up considering what I … More Une belle vie
You deserve to put research first and also to recognize and honor the conditions you need to have in order to do so. I took these ideas for granted until I became a professor, after which they were eroded — in part by other professors who alleged one should be able to work in any … More Encore un petit poème
coldhearted scientist وداد 