Et voilà, now we know. Once again, that is what I would have said, at eleven, seventeen, twenty-four, thirty-one, until I met professors. Namely, assistant professors who had been protégés of famous people at famous schools, and had jobs for this reason. Also, associate and full professors who had attained these ranks by pleasing the … More What is a scholar?
Q: Perhaps I should just take over this program and do it right, rather than try to compromise. A: Have you ever been a department chair, though? They put you through the wringer and if you do not run an authoritarian department, but rather act like a department chair out West or up North, you … More And now: a partial answer to Dame Eleanor
My colleague says it is a uniquely authoritarian institution in a highly authoritarian culture and region. She compares it to Mexico in the 1820s but after reading an article about Argentine culture under J.M. Rosas as cruel and terrifying I am starting to wonder whether we are really 1840s Argentina. “Just get a book, dear.” … More On why it is difficult for us to feel relatively whole and to get things done in a normal fashion
They love to read, that is why. So they do in fact use it to procrastinate. I would rather write. If I am able to sit down and read, it means I am in the real zone and I am working very well. Every attempt I have ever made to write without reading first has … More On why people think reading is procrastination
…if it has become a space of oppression, one naturally does not wish to enter it. I fear lower division courses and this fear paralyzes me for them and thus for everything. That is why I keep saying, you have to take authority. WAIT, I SEE: the issue is the lack of authority in course … More On fear of starting work
I have just discovered by chance that someone in my main department is using a graded reader I used to use at the sophomore level as the textbook in a senior level survey course. I do see why — it has abridged and modernized versions of the classics. I was using it in the lower … More On how I could make my life easier
1. It assumes your primary goals in life are suburban, and are house-driven rather than field-driven or research-driven. 2. It either assumes you are so interested in your work that you will put up with anything, anything at all, in order to do it, OR that you are in fact not interested in it and … More One more insight about the assumptions in standard academic advice
I can already tell what my report will be, I did nothing all week but grade furiously, work for courses that bring memories I would rather not have. I did figure out how, for the first time ever, to give a seminar next fall that will both fit departmental needs AND student interests AND my … More That Writing Group, Again
They hired three people and gave us difficult circumstances. Soon our question each day was this: what will we find we have done, in the normal course of doing our jobs and also attempting to create conditions in which our jobs can even be done as specified, that will turn out to have offended the … More On why obedience was survival
I never got comfortable teaching certain kinds of classes for the same kind of reason as some people, on purpose, do not learn to type: they do not want it to be their destiny. It would be easier if I got comfortable anyway. How to do this is the question, how to make the person … More Insight Three
coldhearted scientist وداد 