Doom du jour

Board of Regents warns of serious adverse impact of budget shortfalls on higher education SACS institutional accreditation could be in jeopardy FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dr. Katara A. Williams Asst. Commissioner for Public Affairs 225-342-4253 February 12, 2016 Baton Rouge, LA -Louisiana’s Commissioner for Higher Education says colleges and universities across the state are bracing … More Doom du jour

Sandemose — eller Jantelov, igen

“Jante Law is just as normal as the law of gravity,” newspaper editor and anthropologist Anne Knudsen assured me. “You find it everywhere, especially in peasant societies, and back [in Sandemose’s day] there were peasants peasants peasants all over the place in Denmark. This kind of ideology became the State ideology when democracy was established … More Sandemose — eller Jantelov, igen

Apollinaire

I It took me all afternoon to make a handout for a class. I have more to do than I can handle, and this handout is one of the things I could have not done, and those who say you must “cut corners on teaching” would surely say I put too much into it, but … More Apollinaire

Walter Benjamin

On Marianna Scheffer’s art blog we have a quotation from Benjamin and then a brief commentary from Marianna. In the appreciation of a work of art or an art form, consideration of the receiver never proves fruitful. Not only is any reference to a certain public or its representatives misleading, but even the concept of … More Walter Benjamin

It’s Carnival time!

It is this weblog’s eleventh Mardi Gras, and the first one was right after Katrina. It was beautiful and we saw Indians, New Orleans Indians and Lafayette Indians in box hats, bonnets carrés. This year again, I will be looking for Indians. The weblog was, effectively, born at midwinter, so this is its tenth anniversary. … More It’s Carnival time!

Aquí se trabaja

Today I did not really start work until 10 AM, but when I did start I went straight through. 8-8:30 prepare essay topic 10: prepare class 11: teach 12: prepare class 1-4: teach 4-5: meeting 5-6: office hour 6-7:30: write up the minutes I paste in below 7:30-8: blog That means I have so far … More Aquí se trabaja

Punctum Books

…[W]hy is everyone so afraid to write what they want to write, to publish what they want to publish? Why, we ruminated together, whether we are seeking tenure-track jobs or have tenure already or simply want to get inside the covers of a book, are we besieged by so many anxieties and fears regarding what … More Punctum Books

“Rhet/comp” and the entrepreneurial university

Passing more of the cost of college on to students (who incur additional debt in the process) means that more of the revenue used to finance higher education is “unsecured.” In California, which is leading the trend towards privatization, more than half of the financing for public colleges now comes from tuition dollars, not state … More “Rhet/comp” and the entrepreneurial university