Author Archives: Timothy Burke

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Posted on February 23, 2016 by Timothy Burke

There is a particular kind of left position, a habitus that is sociologically and emotionally local to intellectuals, that amounts in its way to a particular kind of anti-politics machine. It’s a perspective that ends up with its nose pressed … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 4 Comments

#Prefectus Must Fall: Being a True History of Uagadou, the Wizarding School

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Timothy Burke

So there’s been a spot of disagreement about how to think about state systems in Africa in relationship to J.K. Rowling’s world-building for her Harry Potter novels. I feel a bit bad about perceptions that I was being unfair, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Sheer Raw Geekery | 8 Comments

On Uagadou, the African Wizarding School

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Timothy Burke

I have a good deal to say on the plausibility of a wizarding school in J.K. Rowling’s fantasy world, and the first would be that I should know better than to send Twitter to do a blog’s job, I guess. … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa, Sheer Raw Geekery | 10 Comments

On the Deleting of Academia.edu and Other Sundry Affairs

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Timothy Burke

Once again with feeling, a point that I think cannot be made often enough. Social media created and operated by a for-profit company, no matter what it says when it starts off about the rights of content creators, will inevitably … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 2 Comments

Technologies of the Cold War in Africa (History 90I) Syllabus

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Timothy Burke

I saw last year that some smart academics were using Piktochart to design more graphical, visual syllabi, so I took a stab at it. Loading…

Posted in Academia, Africa, Swarthmore | Comments Off on Technologies of the Cold War in Africa (History 90I) Syllabus

“Dates Back Millennia”

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Timothy Burke

You know, I have less of an unqualified hatred for the “dates back millennia” line than I used to. I’m thinking this as I see my feed fill up with friends and colleagues complaining about Obama’s use of it in … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, Production of History | Comments Off on “Dates Back Millennia”

All Saints Day

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Timothy Burke

Commenting on the debate over Halloween costumes seems freshly risky this week, but the subject has been on my mind since I read this New York Times article on the subject on October 30. My first thought would be that … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Popular Culture, Production of History, Swarthmore | 17 Comments

On the Eating of Lotuses

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Timothy Burke

Wary as I might be (like most historians) of historical analogies, there’s an obvious one out there that could stand some use. I think about it every time I read a story about how young and innocent men and women, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

Inchworm

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Timothy Burke

Over the last decade, I’ve found my institutional work as a faculty member squeezed into a kind of pressure gradient. On one side, our administration has been requesting or requiring more and more data, reporting and procedures that are either … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Defining "Liberal Arts", Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Swarthmore | 5 Comments

Oath for Experts Revisited

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Timothy Burke

I was just reminded by Maarja Krustein of a concept I was messing around a while back, of getting people together to draft a new “oath for experts”. I had great ambitions a few years back about this idea, about … Continue reading →

Posted in Oath for Experts | 4 Comments