Author Archives: Timothy Burke

Definitions of “Liberal Arts”: 1

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Carl Edgar Blake II, Iowa pig farmer: ““I can build a motorcycle, I can fly a model airplane, I can throw somebody out of a bar, I can wrestle a pig and I can program a computer…”

The Moral of Pierre

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I heard just a small bit of a story on NPR this morning about “crunch time” in family life, where working parents feel the pressure of getting their kids fed with a decent meal, finished with homework, and to sleep … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 11 Comments

Late Afternoon of the (Academic) Elites

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I like Michael Bérubé’s essay about the “crisis in the humanities” at the Chronicle of Higher Education but I’ve written quite a lot about the main issues in the essay lately and I want to give it a bit of … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 12 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

Getting to Wrong

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Timothy Burke

About a month ago, I started writing an entry about Gawker Media as a model for the “new journalism”. When I started writing that, I mostly meant it as a compliment. I was thinking about Deadspin’s Manti Te’o expose (by … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Digital Humanities, Information Technology and Information Literacy | 1 Comment

Don’t Compromise. Improvise.

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Non-profit isn’t a status, it’s an ideal. The chief problem with “corporatization” in academia is not a greater emphasis on financial matters or the increased influence of companies on research. A non-profit organization needs to think just as much, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 3 Comments

The Longue Duree of the Galactic Empire

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Timothy Burke

In response to this symposium at Wired about the Battle of Hoth, my thoughts: “The overly episodic focus of military historians and policy experts rather typically leads them to ignore the deeper structural considerations shaping this period in the history … Continue reading →

Posted in Sheer Raw Geekery | 5 Comments

The Dissertation Might Not Be Broken, But It Needs a Chiropractor

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Timothy Burke

One more thing that Menand mentioned in passing in his talk at Swarthmore was that the median time to completion of a Ph.D in the humanities is over nine years. Even if the job market in academia were wonderful that … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 13 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