Category Archives: Generalist’s Work

A Different Diversity

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Following on Carl Edgar Blake II’s description of his abilities, let’s go back to the question of whether faculty in higher education ought to have doctorates, whether doctoral study in some form roughly resembling its present structure is the best … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Defining "Liberal Arts", Generalist's Work, Swarthmore | 2 Comments

Particularism as a Big Idea

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Timothy Burke

One of the interesting points about Jared Diamond’s books that has come up recently at Savage Minds is that cultural anthropologists don’t write “big books” much any longer, that the disciplinary vision of cultural and social anthropology is now so … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Generalist's Work, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System | 10 Comments

More on Menand

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Almost back to feeling normal, so I thought I’d return to my somewhat fever-delirious notes on the Menand talk last week at Swarthmore and see what I could pull out of them. Menand’s talk, following some of his recent writing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Digital Humanities, Generalist's Work, Swarthmore | 2 Comments

On Diamond (Not Again!)

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I don’t really mean to get drawn into recurrent arguments about Jared Diamond’s work, because my actual feelings about the actual books are rather mixed and indifferent. Guns, Germs and Steel reads well, it’s a useful teaching book for fueling … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Cleaning Out the Augean Stables, Generalist's Work | 4 Comments

Moore’s Law (Munitions Edition)

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Let’s say twenty years ago I’d written a science fiction novel about how a futuristic nation has a massive force of flying robot bombs that are programmed with some target parameters and just fly around 24/7 on patrol looking for … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Generalist's Work, Politics | 21 Comments

Commentary on Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Timothy Burke

We had the first of four symposia on Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Righteous Mind last night at Swarthmore. The hope is that we can demonstrate the distinctive advantages that a “liberal arts” approach can yield when many different scholars … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Generalist's Work, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics, Swarthmore | 1 Comment

Debt: The First 500 Comments At Crooked Timber

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Some years ago, I was talking with a senior scholar that I had known well while I was in graduate school and in my early career. This person’s scholarly work is amazing stuff, a huge presence in African history, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Blogging, Generalist's Work, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System | 13 Comments

What’s Not in a Datamine

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I think that research that involves quantitative studies of extremely large datasets of texts that focuses on word usage, genre classification, spatial mapping of publication and circulation, or other kinds of information that we can now collect and analyze is … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities, Generalist's Work, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System | 4 Comments

Some Weeds

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I got into an unedifying dispute some years ago about the term “Eurocentric”. Some conservative cultural critics seem to think that any mention of the term marks you off as a crazed member of Sendero Luminoso or some such. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Generalist's Work | Comments Off

Generalist’s Work, Day 5

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Timothy Burke

My colleague Richard Eldridge has written intricately about “the persistence of romanticism”, and defended romanticism in literature and philosophy against some of the more common criticisms. In humanistic writing, I’m struck by the sometimes uncomfortable mixing of a romanticist vision … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Digital Humanities, Generalist's Work, Popular Culture | 2 Comments