Heresy In my experience the decorous things to say are that teaching is fun, writing is work, publishing is difficult, service is boring, and administration is oppressive. I was always warned to say I was not interested in teaching, because women who taught would never be taken seriously as researchers. In my actual experience it … More A Second Heretical Post, a Story, and a Question
I am still seething and I cannot sleep, so I will post a question to New Orleans people and then I will sleep. Situation: I take a new friend — friend of a better friend — with me to my usual place in N.O., to go to a certain parade. She — Whiteman One in … More In Which I Still Seethe
Some time ago I taught the novel I am studying now. Its characters are classified by color according to a complex system of differentiation, and of concern to many is whiteness: attaining it, increasing it, limiting it, maintaining it. A student came to ask me about the classification system, which she had not entirely grasped. … More Global Whiteness
Writing is fun and publishing is easy. I know it is heresy to say that, so I will repeat it throughout this post. I am really tired of hearing how much I should be suffering and how hard it should all be. I have just never had a hard time writing or publishing, even though … More A Heretical Post
In Change Magazine, there is an article on the academic industrial complex to read and discuss. The piece begins by showing how the Carnegie Foundation and the AAUP shaped academia in the 20th century. Together, these two entities created a national, mobile professoriate (see also the discussion of Carnegie units and credit hours), a professoriate … More Gary Rhoades
Yes, I know there is an inauguration going on, but as far as I am concerned it is the day I planned to start working in earnest, so I am working (despite jury duty, which I hope to dispatch post haste). In this post I will work first by reminding Obama of certain campaign promises … More Back to the Twenties
The World That Made New Orleans both delights and instructs. So does John Pizer’s The Idea of World Literature. I recommend it to anyone, but especially to those in or interfacing with an English Department. I am also reading the Princeton Review. The website has a calculator which conjugates your GPA and test scores to … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: Ned Sublette, John Pizer, and the Princeton Review
MUSIC TO GRADE BY It is a working weekend, so we will sing work songs! I never paid a great deal of attention to the Creedence Clearwater Revival but I associate them with California because when I was a child, they were on all the radios. As a result of this they are the soundtrack … More Creedence Clearwater Revival
This is a MESTIZO POST, meaning it is mixed. It might be an ajiaco. It could be a curanto. And a cocido madrileño sounds good right now. I should make one, buying ingredients at La Tienda Punto Com. 1. Research Insight A commentator here suggested that the world’s fascination with Barack Obama’s racial mixture bespoke … More Cocido Madrileño
*POOF.* This post was related to my just having been informed by one who should know better that GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ was a “Mexican” writer. Please, everybody, realize that Latin America has many countries. Not every Latin American who has lived in Mexico is Mexican. Not every Latin American whose work has been translated to … More Another Question for English Professors
coldhearted scientist وداد 