fwiw I don't personally find a 600 page/week load to be particularly pedagogically useful, but could we try not being the Stupidest Assholes of All Time
if we have all this power over structuring "reality" and "time" could we make a REALITY in which it's TIME for me and my friends to have permanent jobs
Again, four decades of Foucault has somehow made academics dumber about power. Yes the consultants are coming up with the details of campus restructurings. But the consultants work for the Board. Board members make all the important decisions.
everyday produces more evidence that the most important function of English professors is to teach people, including other English professors, that fictional characters are not real
within the context of the neoliberal academy, this so-called "radical pedagogy" is basically libertarianism, shoving students into the wild west and telling them to go make it on their own, best of luck, enjoy your radical freedom.
I run a student-centered classroom (no prep, long awkward silences) with a dynamic approach (making things up as I go along) to multimodal learning (occasionally find relevant Seinfeld clips on YouTube)
I started watching Mandolorian just for having something dumb and thoughtless to watch and am horrified to admit I care more about Baby Yoda than any other fictional character in the history of art
looking to teach some books next term for my new class on books. Want to avoid obvious ones (the Bible, etc.). Anyone know of any books, preferably bound ones with pages and covers?
also if you think the cause of the decline of English and literature departments is professor's "rigor" like, have you ever seen a dollar bill? have you ever used money to pay for goods and/or services?
It's been a long time coming, but my article on Native Son and statistical governance, "Everybody's Statistical Record: Richard Wright and the Determinations of Late Naturalism," is out in the new issue of Representations.
humanities academic who thinks every image is a picture of some kind of humanities academic vs a normal person who thinks these are pictures of two Olympic shooting competitors
I don't know if my dumb account saying so has value. I highly doubt it. But I feel compelled to at least state unequivocally that Israel, the US, Biden, Fetterman, and many others are all committing genocide. I do not feel compelled to distinguish between direct and indirect.
It's July 4, 2024. You're watching Bob Dylan play the song he wrote for Wonder Boys. The gummy's kicking in. Big Elden Ring plans this weekend. You're a 34 years old single dog dad in an election year. Things will never be this good again.
really enjoyed
@feinsod
's piece on David Berman, from the recent P45 cluster. it's my favorite kind of analysis: something I would never have thought of that seems so obvious and undeniable after reading it.
this guy is the Florida Marlins of tweets. almost never makes the playoffs (i.e., tweets a tweet that I see) but every time they do they win the World Series (i.e. it's the worst tweet I've ever seen)
When I was in my PhD program I didn’t go to any parties except one, where a bunch of the other students cornered me, drunk, to ask what I was doing that I was getting some success, as if it wasn’t just from writing instead of going to parties and watching too much tv.
Not to play oppression Olympics but I honestly thought “first gen” meant first in your family to graduate college, not first to earn a PhD. Color me shocked to learn this today lol
absolutely crazy that you can just have a small furry man that lives in your house and makes little beds for himself and pretends to kill inanimate objects for fun
Last year I got tenure, this year I'll be a visiting scholar at Harvard, and I got a 6-figure advance to publish a book next year. In honor of these accomplishments, here's a list of embarrassing confessions revealing how dumb my brain is in many ways:
based on the single sample size of my dad, who tends to go with the country, Shapiro will corner the market on making Republicans respect the ticket more without getting them to actually vote for it
@still_oppressed
They're wilfully misreading, or rather they just literally don't consider Palestinian people to be people, so they cannot understand the connection.
Make a 20-track comp of your all-time fav tracks, each artist can only feature once. Not the 'best' songs, the ones that bring instant joy the second you hear the first note, the ones that give other people the best insight into what stirs your soul. Share when ready.
#20tracks
I don't think there is a solution to the humanities enrollment crisis short of free college for all, and I wonder if a solution short of that would even be ethical, frankly.
visiting home for a belated family celebration of finishing the PhD. my only request was for my parents to stock something other than light beer. I listed several beers I like including High Life. I was woken at 8 AM by my father calling to ask if Miller Lite would be OK.
intense flashbacks in which you realize the reason you study books for a living is b/c no one in your family ever listens when you're talking so you'd just give up and start reading! at the family function
The most gullable I've ever been is when someone joked to me that Michelle Obama was behind Pokemon Go as part of her youth fitness deal, and I thought they were serious and told literally 100s of Philadelphians.
one of the only things I'm proud of is making friends bc I was terrible at it and had to teach myself, and a bunch of them came to celebrate bday shit w
@dennismhogan
and me and I'm so thankful.
Sorry but if your focus rn is on policing pro-Palestine protests, esp by depicting Michael Solomonov as a humble shopkeeper and not one of the most famous and influential people in the city, you're a fuckhead.
I know academia is in a bad place but if you had told me 9 years ago as I'm reading Twilight of the Middle Class that Andrew Hoberek would be rooting for the Sixers to sign a free agent on my behalf I'd have been like what kind of dreamworld is this
the speed with which Penn took away my library access was p wild. it's incredible to me that Penn doesn't extend even a year or two of access to PhDs, many of whom won't have jobs but might still be trying to complete research in hopes of one day getting one.
Universities: Farewell alumni, know that your connection with our institution will endure for life
Also universities: Your internet access and email account will be disabled in 45 minutes
It snuck up on me that today is Zurich's gotcha day. four years together. my life will never be the same for the time we have together. I'm so thankful for every day of it. you can always sleep on my pants if you want to. I love you.
it's cool how normal people can be fired instantly for any reason and rich people can be committing crimes in public and giving unhinged speeches and everyone's like "we're trying to fire him but it's illegal"