To all male faculty: I used to feel sorry for you because of your boorish behavior. Poor guy, ugly and unpopular in school, father just like him, mother didn’t teach him manners, had to become a professor because he wasn’t personable enough for any other kind of job, I would think. I would try to … More Memorandum 7
To all deans, chairs, and directors: I realize that at home with your families – with your young children and your wives whom you met when you had them in your classes and who teach high school or community college courses – your wisdom appears to parallel that of Solomon, and your logic, that of … More Memorandum 5
I I had always heard that being on the tenure track was a terrible thing, but I liked it. This is largely because before I got the idea of going to graduate school and discovered I was doing well there, I thought my destiny was to become a Receptionist or a Homemaker. I considered the … More On the Tenure Track
Over a year ago I had an argument with a blogger in which he accused me of insincerity. One of his blog friends looked at the exchange and said that actually, I was sincere “to a fault.” This was very interesting and I have thought about it since from time to time. I was first … More On Sincerity
Aside from the talk of abolishing it, tenure remains important for all of the usual reasons (primarily academic freedom), but for others perhaps more important, especially faculty governance. Without the job security of tenure, the professoriate is reduced to the role of a paid workforce serving at the whim of various bottom lines. More importantly, … More Open Thread on Tenure
I My intermediate level class, an introduction to literature, is bombing and it is in part because those who can read, do not want to, and those who want to, cannot. I have been using an anthology for this class and it is the one used for such classes nationwide. Up until now it has worked rather well but … More On Being and Not
So I am very pleased with this semester and with my prospects for the medium term future since I have won a useful prize. Still, for what may be worth to others (for me it is worthwhile as a career analysis exercise), and because I spoke from my space of dedication in the recent meme(s) … More YURPIE™
Reflecting back over the past, the problem with my functioning within a different [N. Ed.: or in my vocabulary, alien] culture has been specifically: trying to use a lot of mental power to treat what I consider to be peripheral issues seriously, whilst treating the very serious issues in my mind as if they were … More A Good Description of Reeducation
I have a conference in San Diego just after the semester ends. Especially since the university will not pay for the trip, I want to combine it with a vacation in California – I am not sure how long a vacation. Now I am trying to decide how to plan just the conference part of … More In Which I Need ‘Input’
This post is key. Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 