Author Archives: Timothy Burke

The Author Is Human

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Stanley Fish’s NYT response to Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s Planned Obsolescence is actually a pretty useful provocation in several respects. As I read it, Fish basically moves to identify digital humanists as playing out the next move of postmodern politics and epistemology. … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities | 4 Comments

Saying It Again

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Timothy Burke

From the department of pointless but compulsory exercises: every single time Rick Santorum or anyone with similar views says the following two things: a) What, you want gay marriage? What’s next, legitimating polygamy? and b) The only form of legal, … Continue reading →

Brinkmanship

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Victor Ferrall’s short overview of the circumstances facing small liberal-arts colleges (SLACs) in the United States is an interesting read for anyone who works for such an institution and for any student past or present. Ferrall’s the former president of … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 3 Comments

Mechanical Turks and Mirror Stages

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I like this essay by John Jones about search algorithms, which he compares to “mechanical Turk” automatons of the 18th Century. It’s a point that’s well-understood in some circles and completely not in others. Witness the degree to which users … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System | 2 Comments

On Not Going Back to School

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I think I’ll toss in a bit for Kio Stark’s Kickstarter project Don’t Go Back to School, that aims to be a how-to guide for independent learning. What Stark is planning to argue (and enable) connects to one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 13 Comments

The Movement of Students

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Timothy Burke

For various reasons, I’ve found myself this semester talking with colleagues about the migration of students through our curriculum: the courses where they busily cluster, the lonely cobwebbed courses, the majors and courses that follow regular oscillating cycles of interest. … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 8 Comments

Catching Up II: Letting Go of the Reins

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I bookmarked a blog entry earlier this month by Elijiah Meeks that was endorsing a longer essay by Natalia Cecire about the relationship between theory and tools in digital humanities work, and also the relationship between humanists and technologists. Meeks … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities | 4 Comments

Catching Up I: Charity Towards the Uncharitable

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I’ve had a pretty demanding series of weeks where I couldn’t afford my usual distractedness, so the backlog of things I’ve been meaning to comment on is considerable. To start, I had bookmarked a thread at Crooked Timber on Steven … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Production of History | 8 Comments

Move the Data Server-Side! Occupy Sanctuary!

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Timothy Burke

Three things about Occupy, two short, one long. 1) Occupy is already a success if the model is to provoke reaction from its chief targets. It’s hard to imagine pundits passing up the chance to comment on anything: the 24/7 … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 7 Comments

Why I Love Fall

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Timothy Burke

The light alone at this time of year is worth the price of admission. More posts coming soon.

Posted in Swarthmore | Comments Off