Some people are learning not to speak up and in academia, this is typically how one is coached: do not say anything, all you will do is ruin your credibility as a reasonable person. I disagree and I think people should learn that to speak up, you do not have to be outraged or impassioned. … More On speaking up
It is that one-up, one-down position. The assumption is that one does not know what one is doing at all, needs very basic instruction and is recalcitrant. Questions or attempts to refocus discussion to a more sophisticated are met with this behaviorist, “you have not gotten my point yet.” I have already been underestimated far … More Now I understand still more about my reaction to Boice and the Boiceans
1. A colleague who is currently chair of his department remarked [on the current structure of meetings for department chairs] 2. This interested me because I would say the same about the current structure of meetings for [my committee] 3. Both this colleague’s observation and mine bespeak the situation described in [JL’s piece], on the … More Outline for an opinion piece
One does, in fact, need large blocks of time for work. Not for the work itself — that can be done in little pieces. One needs big blocks of time because the work has to be couched in rest and recreation, in which one is not working at breakneck speed on other things, but is … More One more brilliant, contrarian post
This is my idea for the IILI conference at the Colegio de México. It would build on a piece I am giving here. It would revisit Schwarz’ concept of “misplaced ideas” — which may be somewhat outdated or limited or something, such that it is worth discussing and revising. The concept really does apply to … More Cecilia Valdés y las ideas fuera de lugar
Here are some things to think about. 1. Mireille’s article on appropriations of Aimé Césaire. I read it and thought of Vallejo appropriations, and I did not yet know about Jonathan’s book on Lorca appropriations. Now I find Mireille’s prose irritatingly unclear but I want to bring the piece up again since it is about … More Research never ends
It is the condescending tone, the supposition that one has no experience writing, and the assumption that one does not like to write; most of all it is the insistence that all you need is discipline. Nicole and Maggie claim that if you do not need the basic advice Boice gives, you should be able … More More on my allergy to Robert Boice and the Boiceans
Today I had a leisurely breakfast with my guest and took her to the station, after which I did some errands. I came home and started laundry, looked at e-mail and did some financial things, and then it was noon. I had lunch and sat down to write, taking short breaks to wrap packages, make … More Le lundi
Ahora bien. Tomorrow I will start writing it in English and it will, as we have said, begin with Bolívar and then go on to Doris Sommer. Next it will talk about Goldberg and da Silva (and mention Sanjinés and Lund). The point is that mestizaje and the nation are old topics but race, modernity … More Race and the state…
♦ There is little distance between exogamy and incest since Don Cándido is everyone’s father (as it were). ♦ There is no compatibility between the hierarchical, slaveowning society and the bourgeois, modern one. The secrets that must be kept from the bourgeois society cause problems: it cannot be said that Cecilia is Leonardo’s sister, so their romance … More Cecilia Valdés, again
coldhearted scientist وداد 