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
MIND AND MATTER This is Mark Griffith. I had a class from him in translation as an undergraduate and then later, in graduate school, a reading class on Horace. He is a good professor but what makes him unique in my life is that he was the only person, student or professor, who without need … More On academia and cultural exceptionalism
Here is a good article on The Great Gatsby, the movie. Here is a fact from it that I did not know: “an ethnic-American man like Gatsby (born Gatz) would not have been considered “white.” Gatsby is German. I knew Norwegians, Swedes and Finns were ambiguously white, almost as ambiguously so as the southern Europeans, but … More How to read
A national magazine is taking my piece. Certain local officials did not know who they were dealing with at all, at all, and I am not finished yet. Axé.
I have to work on my NEH Letter of Intent this week. I am saying this because when I shut this computer down I will have to close the document, I am likely to forget about it. I have to remember IILI and LASA deadlines as well. Here is a lesson in logic by the … More La semaine
Warning! For the past four years I have not been invited to vote on tenure, fourth year review, or hiring. I am not the only one and I had decided not to take it personally. When I am on these committees they tend to vote my way, not because I have the power to force … More Symptoms of neoliberalization and complicity
Section 5 of my journalistic article. How can I strengthen it still further? A New Curriculum Around the time my piece was distributed in Louisiana, British political scientist Tarak Barkawi published a closely related analysis in Al Jazeera. In it he notes the use of euphemism to justify the purchase of commercial educational products over … More The latest revision — stronger, but not marvelous
Time time time: to some extent it is true, one is as harried as one wants to be. My overwhelmed friend teaches community college, 15 hours of class a week, 3 courses 5 days a week, plus meetings, office hours, planning, grading, and the exhaustion of working in a turbulent institution. That is of course plenty … More Fugue states
I do not like the conclusion of my piece — it is too incomplete. It makes it sound as though I am just going for quasi-unionization or something but that is not what I mean (I do *also* mean it but what I really mean is something else). I mean: get rid of the “employee” … More In need of revision
In 1869, Nietzsche was appointed professor of classical philology at Basel University. Like most junior faculty, he was bedeviled by meager wages and bore major responsibilities, such as teaching fourteen hours a week, Monday through Friday, beginning at 7 am. He also sat on multiple committees and covered for senior colleagues who couldn’t make their classes. … More Nietzche on the tenure track
coldhearted scientist وداد 