On academic presentations and the future of conferences
Author and creative writing teacher Rachel Toor writes in the latest Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) about the problems of either dashing off talks the night before,
A few of my favorite things: What I enjoy about travel, biking, workshops, and cooking
In the last few days I've been doing a lot of stuff: biking, organizing a Memorial Day dinner, preparing for a week-long trip to the East Coast, thinking
Anthony Grafton on graduate school, and the uncertain nature of big decisions
Nothing in it about penis-shaped helicopters, but this Anthony Grafton piece about going to graduate school is pretty good-- the kind of combination of encouragement about the inherent
What a thesis defense is really like
Maybe it's more an illustration of the deeper truth of what it's like, rather than a literal picture. [Thanks Ethan!] [To the tune of 2Pac, Dr. Dre &
Reading as a martial art
After taking note of Jill Davis' copy of What the Dormouse Said, I thought I should show what my copy looks like now: My standard practice now is
Jargonwatch: PhDiva
I confess to mixed feelings about linking to the article, and running the risk of spreading the meme. However, there's a serious argument in here that's worth noting.
Revelation of the day
"Librarians are more socially outgoing than academics?" (Household Opera, "The 'single woman in a rural college town' blues")
Review of Tom Misa, Leonardo to the Internet
My review of Tom Misa's Leonardo to the Internet came out in the latest American Scholar. Since the Scholar doesn't have a Web site, I'm taking the liberty of publishing the review here. (The editors at AS, all of whom are leaving or are being forced out-- a fact that I still have a hard time getting my mind around-- made some improvements to it; this is really the draft.)
[To the tune of The Beatles, "Let It Be," from the album 1.]
Getting to The Future
I was thinking about how I came to get this new columnist gig, and how the mechanics of it differ from getting an academic position. This is worth
Journeyman again
Preface (1999) No one has born the weight of the decade's terrible academic job market more than young Ph.D.s. Caught between a culture that insists they cannot leave