Category Archives: Academia

I’ve been exchanging emails with a couple of people who are contemplating graduate school, something I’m always happy to do. Contrary to my advice in “Should You Go to Graduate School”, I’m often completely ok with helping people figure out … Continue reading →

I’m up for promotion here this year. It’s not as fraught or difficult a moment at Swarthmore as it is at many R-1 universities, as we don’t receive a pay raise or really any specific reward at all save the … Continue reading →

Help me out, evolutionary theorists. I’m a bit puzzled at the conclusion that homo habilus cannot be ancestral to homo erectus because the two species apparently lived alongside each other for 500,000 years or so. Isn’t it possible for one … Continue reading →

I’ve been doing a decent amount of peer review work this summer. I was struck at how my own practices had changed over time. First, I’m curious. How many people received some instruction about how to do peer review, any … Continue reading →

From time to time we hear of the glories of a past age when university presidents strode like giants across the land, leading our genteel national discourse on the great issues of our day. First, I think there’s plenty of … Continue reading →

Endowments, that is. Large endowments for universities and colleges are not in and of themselves a problem or an embarassment, nor should institutions with large endowments hesitate to try and increase the size of their endowment still further both through … Continue reading →