“Bien regarder, je crois que ça s’apprend.” –Emmanuelle Riva in Hiroshima mon amour. “Change comes first at the societal level, not at the level of the individual. You work to change society, change the relations of production, and this work changes you.” My Marxist boyfriend said this one day in Berkeley during Reagan’s second presidential … More On change
At one time we were all trying to convince my brother to write a dissertation on the china poblana who is such an odd cultural figure. I never actually looked up research on her but now here is an article sent by a friend. There is also a book chapter, more than one actually, by … More Sobre la china poblana
I know people say procrastination is perfectionism but I don’t know how in the world they came up with this idea. I know perfectionists and they don’t procrastinate, they’re just meticulous and over-critical, over-fussy. I first “procrastinated” twice in graduate school, when I had paper ideas that were not actually viable. Studying on quarters there … More A rough draft (response to Jonathan)
There are all these books, new books, amazing South American anthropology and theory books, that you can download from the Antropologías del sur site. There is also a really smart post about writing productivity. ♦ I keep forgetting that I am slightly dissociative, or slightly withdrawn. I forget because it is almost imperceptible, and then … More Antropologías del sur
This title uses, in English, my modified translation of a phrase from a 19th century text. That phrase is “un ojo conocedor” and my title is “That Discerning Eye: …”. I discovered by chance (well, by reading U.S. slave narratives) that slaves and, I assume others, referred to the “discerning eye” as one that could … More There might be a problem with my title
In shorthand. Important to note for this week is how I was taught that normalcy was a façade. In reality we were barely tolerated: we hadn’t been wanted, we were not liked, and it was wished that we would go away. Our successes were events carefully arranged for our amusement by our parents, and if … More Education and Reeducation
Having a bad day today. Maybe the hangover from being denied tenure by the right-wing stooge John Silber, the then president of Boston University, in 1981 still stings. Since those dark days, I have always had some hope in the university, recognizing that it was an important site of struggle and filled with contradictions. I … More Henry Giroux Today
The book seems dated now, but I did not pay enough attention when it came out in 2003, although I read the reviews. It is about how the for-profit ethos has crept into universities. I do not know whether I knew enough then to understand the book as I do now. I learned a very … More Steal this university!
Here is a book about how to be an academic administrator and it looks quite good. It is from 2006 but glancing at it I thought it would be older, as it seems to come from an era so much kinder and gentler and humane. The university was already savage, of course, but it really … More “Where you stand is where you sit”
I love co-working and dislike working in isolation, but I see now that I have a longstanding (although not evident) anxiety condition for which Boicean-style advice is a trigger. I am also so naturally organized, disciplined, and motivated that the Boicean-style admonishments feel demeaning, as I know that what I need is time to contemplate, … More More about the anxiety
coldhearted scientist وداد 