Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Guy Geltner, a medievalist, has written an important piece on why he is leaving Academia.edu, a site that encourages academics to upload their work (skirting copyright laws by calling them “drafts” in some cases), and deploying various algorithms to connect people, encourage discussion, and so forth. I joined and put two papers online. One – …
UPDATE: Dominican Star article on the protests. Administration has been speaking out in solidarity with the students and we’ll see what happens. Meeting today at 8:30 of Faculty to discuss actions. Last week African-American students at Dominican University protested racism on campus. Here are two videos. The first is a short protest in the cafeteria. …
@Lollardfish Rly like that you took on “boondoggle” issue. By def’n not a boondoggle for those who have to pay our own way much of the time. — Carrie Schroeder (@ctschroeder) May 6, 2015 Yesterday at the Chronicle of Higher Education, I had a new piece defending academic conferences. I talk about the kinds of …
Yesterday a professor at Princeton saw fit to ask in the New York Times “What is the purpose of the conference?” She meant is as a setup for a rant about how boring they are all are, writing: If everyone is content with the conference as a legitimate custom, why do post-conference sentiments typically range from disappointment …
Recently, I’ve seen a positive trend – Academics talking bluntly about money. Talking about money doesn’t besmirch intellectual activity; rather, being paid fairly enables more and better intellectual activity. We exist in a profession in which talking about money is gauche. We’re supposed to work because we love it (read this essay on the exploitation …
A new survey of chief academic officers is out from Inside Higher Education. Among the findings: Provosts really care about civility and think it should be part of the framework for hiring and tenure. I see this as potentially troubling. When the Steven Salaita controversy broke, I wrote a piece for the Chronicle called “Don’t Speak …
For the next few days, Community Colleges will be in the news, thanks to the president’s proposal. #FreeCommunityCollege was the top trending hashtag in the U.S. yesterday. There are lots of news reports and surely hundreds of think pieces to come. My basic assessment is that it’s a good plan that if enacted, because it’s not a …
Today in the Chronicle of Higher Education I have a profile of Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University. I’m interested in his work as a public intellectual and defender of the traditions of liberal learning. There are lots of other people who make similar arguments (which is not a criticism. They are GOOD arguments!). …
I have a meta-thesis about academic culture: It’s no worse than anywhere else, but we tend to think we’re better, and that’s where the problems come in. Usually I’m talking about race, class, or gender. We think we’re immune to the dominant trends of American society, so generally resist being told to change our ways. …
One of my absolutely favorite writers on disability, Lydia Brown, is at Georgetown. She’s an increasingly well-known voice on disability issues and, not surprisingly, was asked to provide a training to student organizations about accessibility. She agreed. No one showed up. In a powerful post, Brown explains what the empty room means. Nothing demonstrates more …