Category Archives: Uncategorized
Look, yes, there are things wrong with conferences
…but you don’t have to be a dick about it. (Though at times honestly it’s not clear whether the object of derision is the narrator or the people he describes; nonetheless, since it’s the Chronicle, which specializes in columns about academia … Continue reading
LARB discussion of Toby Miller’s “Blow Up the Humanities”
Well worth reading, here. Miller’s response here. Here is the thing: I’ve always liked Toby Miller, ever since he gave a talk when I was in grad school and bet that no one in the room had seen Demolition Man, … Continue reading
The doldrums
Back after the break, and my life isn’t really that hard these days. Nonetheless I and everyone around me seem exhausted. No one knows what to blame; it feels, over the days, most like a collection of small things: the … Continue reading
Song of the Day
Jameson’s similes
This is a list of most of the similes using “like” in Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism. The prestige of these great streamlined shapes can be measured by their metaphorical presence in Le Corbusier’s buildings, vast Utopian structures which ride like so many … Continue reading
Song of the day
From last night’s The Voice. Source: Printculture
Placeholder: Future of the Humanities PhD
Stanford apparently moving forward with its plans to radically revise the PhD. More later today or tomorrow when I get enough of my book done to feel good about myself. Source: Printculture
Sitcoms of yesteryear
Among the more popular premises for a sitcom is the fish out of water. Under this general rubric you will find many of the long-running shows of the last fifty years, often organized around the classic social situations: race, class, … Continue reading
Republicans on Copyright
A few years ago at the instigation of Paul Saint-Amour Ted Wesp and I spent a few months thinking and writing about copyright (results in Paul’s edited book, here). Ever since I’ve been convinced not only of the importance of copyright … Continue reading
Song of the Day
Source: Printculture
Song of the Day
Source: Printculture
Administrators and Professors
This piece in Bloomberg is disappointingly short. Money quote: At universities nationwide, employment of administrators jumped 60 percent from 1993 to 2009, 10 times the growth rate for tenured faculty. “Administrative bloat is clearly contributing to the overall cost of higher … Continue reading
Song of the day
Source: Printculture
More on MOOCs
Siva Vaidhyanathan on MOOCs, just to keep the discussion going. If we support the MOOC experiment it would be foolish to do so without confronting the serious incentive problems MOOCs present to teachers, students, and institutions of higher education. These … Continue reading