Category Archives: Academia

The Humane Digital

As a way of tackling both the question “whither the humanities” and the thorny issue of defining “digital humanities” in relationship to that question, I’ll offer this: maybe one strategy is to talk about what can make intellectual work humane. … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Defining "Liberal Arts", Digital Humanities, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System | 3 Comments

On the Clery Act Complaint

I didn’t support the campaign to have fraternities restricted or banned at Swarthmore, largely for reasons I articulated earlier this academic year. I do support the students who’ve filed a Clery Act and Title IX complaint against Swarthmore, and similar … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 36 Comments

Outside the Classroom

One of the questions about “ethical pedagogy” that I keep circling around, as long-time readers of this blog know, is what kinds of teaching or engagement faculty should pursue with students beyond formal courses. It is a cliche to say … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 17 Comments

If It Gets you Tang, Space Foodsticks and Miniaturization, Then Go Ahead and Fly to the MOOc

So I remain firmly in the camp of people grumpy about the hype over MOOCs. Not so much about the reality of MOOCs, which is something that most of the hypesters remain defiantly unacquainted with. Digitization in higher education has … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Information Technology and Information Literacy | 5 Comments

Digital Learning Is Like a Snow Leopard (Real, Beautiful, Rare and Maybe To Be Outdated by a New Operating System)

Maybe it’s just because it’s my obsession of the moment, but the digital camera strikes me as the single greatest example of a new “disruptive” technology that permits a fundamentally new kind of learning experience. However, precisely because digital photography … Continue reading

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

A Different Diversity

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

Late Afternoon of the (Academic) Elites

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

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

Don’t Compromise. Improvise.

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 Dissertation Might Not Be Broken, But It Needs a Chiropractor

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