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Author Archives: Timothy Burke
Grubeus Shagrid, At Your Service
Low-energy day today: I spent a good part of yesterday playing the part of Shagrid, distant cousin to Hagrid of Harry Potter fame, convening an American expansion of the famous Hogwarts School. This was the consequence of my daughter’s request … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic Life
3 Comments
One-A-Day, David Birmingham and Phyllis Martin, eds., History of Central Africa Volume 1
Students looking at the piles of books strewn over my desk, my windowsill, my bookshelves and my floor sometimes understate things a bit and say, “You have a lot of books”. (One reason I don’t really want to move again, … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
Comments Off on One-A-Day, David Birmingham and Phyllis Martin, eds., History of Central Africa Volume 1
Now You Know, and Knowing Is Half the Battle
Geeky Mom gets two things right about the recent Frontline special about children’s use of the Internet. First, that some of the parents shown in the show have no one to blame but themselves for not knowing what their kids … Continue reading
One-A-Day: Alexander Galloway, Gaming: Essays in Algorithimic Culture
Remember: these aren’t reviews. If I were reviewing Galloway’s Gaming, I’d spend a long while talking about why I like much of it, and think it works very well alongside similar works of critical theory applied to games and digital … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Games and Gaming, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
7 Comments
Liberal Arts Poster Children
I was thinking last week, after another discussion of assessment, about what I would regard as a successful product of a liberal arts education. If I don’t want to have a test of a fixed body of knowledge, but I … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Popular Culture, Swarthmore
6 Comments
Strategic Admissions Limitations Talks?
I’m seeing and hearing some interesting discussions in a number of places about recent changes to the price structure of tuition at highly selective colleges and universities. In today’s New York Times, Roger Lehecka and Andrew Delbanco criticize the Harvard-led … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Swarthmore
9 Comments
One-A-Day, Tsuneo Yoshikuni, African Urban Experiences in Colonial Zimbabwe: A Social History of Harare Before 1925
I have a tendency to oversell the value of a generalist approach to academic work, partly to try and defend my own practices and interests. I genuinely think that many specialist monographs fail to make a case for their importance, … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
10 Comments
One-A-Day: John Wright, Fugitives of Chaos
I feel like finding new authors to like in genre fiction can be quite difficult. You know who you already like, but the marketing of work by new authors often makes them seem either as if they’re derivative of someone … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Popular Culture, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
1 Comment
Historians For Messy Desks
I’ve been trying to keep an open mind about the primaries. Among other reasons, because as a registered independent, I can’t vote in them anyway in Pennsylvania. But everyone has their tipping point, and mine kind of just tipped over … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
10 Comments
My Librarians Are Awesome
In the category of “best unexpected surprises ever” and also “why academics should blog”. I posted my syllabi this fall on this blog. In one new course in particular, I’m using a bunch of new texts that I knew were … Continue reading