The Reeducator said this and also said I was too intellectual, too “thinking.” (Thinking was bad, because it involved reason, which to him meant false reason and rationalization, and of course he was very anti-intellectual.) I didn’t understand what he meant, because I have deep feelings and also a lot of emotions; I was insulted … More “Feel your feelings”

I don’t ever want to feel as I did [yesterday] again. Or for the past 27 years living in Lafayette. Therefore, this is what I have to say to the Cajuns of that Cajun Renaissance: yes, I have a PhD, and if you say so, yes, it’s better than yours. Yes, I’ve got broader academic … More Epistle to the Cajuns

Right, in a broader sense the revolution I’m in was lost 50 years ago and I know it. But my not wanting to be defeated is this: I don’t feel like quitting the university without another university job, it’s just that in my particular department religious adoration of the suffering Cajuns is required at all … More Something I said to a friend

Be on time, not in a rush. Put self first. Reach to the outside and to students, everyone else to the background. Two weeks in California in December. People don’t get to invade me and if they do, I get to stop them at the first opportunity. Other people may need to be more flexible, … More New Year

From a Cajun friend: “There is a certain variety of active ignorance that is treated as virtue by white Louisianians. You hear them browbeat each other over their shitty beers at get-togethers, etc.” That’s exactly it. On French vs. Spanish, Spanish is far more cosmopolitan, and French is far more standardized.Spanish has more tenses, more … More The political analysis

I am looking for fellowships for certain classes of students, in particularly non-US graduate students at US institutions. One for fieldwork in a third country (i.e. fieldwork they couldn’t just do while home on school breaks, let’s say they’re from Japan and are doing a U.S. PhD in Latin American Studies). One for work in … More Fellowships

I would love to say to tourists: Aspects of the Cajun adoration to which I object include the fleur-de-lys and the nostalgia for empire, along with the desire to parlay that into becoming kings in a new, corporate empire. If you want credit for being a poor peasant and you’ve decided to become a king’s … More Further sacrilege

I am not going out on any limb for any student of any kind, ever again. They can be abused, stalked, whatever, by other faculty and I will not stand up for them. The reason is that every person I have ever really stood up for, and sacrificed for (because the system does abuse you … More In which I have had it

Axé.