Category Archives: Academia

Most Annoying?

Posted on July 22, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Well, Swarthmore’s in the running for Gawker’s most annoying liberal arts college. I agree with one commenter, though. How the HELL did Dartmouth not get on this list? Outrageous. Also, in the interest of political balance, St. John’s should totally … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 12 Comments

Pedant

Posted on July 19, 2007 by Timothy Burke

I’m consistently in favor of academics adapting their conversation and rhetoric to the discourse of a wider public, of rejoining many general conversations. On the other hand, if we don’t know more than everyone else about certain kinds of issues, … Continue reading →

“Citation Plagiarism”

Posted on June 18, 2007 by Timothy Burke

There’s a very interesting entry by Bill Poser at Language Log on the issue of whether there is such a thing as citation plagiarism. (Poser argues no.) Inside Higher Education also links to a very interesting reply by Kerim Friedman … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Intellectual Property | 12 Comments

Ways to Require History

Posted on May 18, 2007 by Timothy Burke

I’m going to be a bit of a bore, and keep going on the question of requirements, if only to see if we can go beyond Withywindle and I exchanging tit-for-tat in the comments on the last post. Because this … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 14 Comments

Enrollments and Requirements

Posted on May 17, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Miriam Burstein and Scott Eric Kaufman have done the necessary close critique of ACTA’s latest report. Considering how much the problems with this document resemble those I’ve identified in past work by ACTA, I’m increasingly wondering whether ACTA has earned … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 22 Comments

Reading is FUNdamental?

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Timothy Burke

The History of Reading course I taught this semester for the first time turned out to be one of my favorite classes ever for a lot of reasons, very much including the students in the course. In the middle of … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 35 Comments

Fun With Intellectual Property Issues, No. 340 in a Series: Aluka

Posted on April 24, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Regular readers have heard me complain before about the straight-up weirdness of the way the cost of research falls on institutions of higher education. Universities directly or indirectly subsidize faculty to carry out research through a variety of means: sabbaticals, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property | 7 Comments

Misery Poker: At Least a Full Boat, Maybe Quads

Posted on April 19, 2007 by Timothy Burke

April really is the cruellest month in the academic calendar, but this year, I am pretty much at the outer limits of my ability to cope with the flood of things that need doing. Some of those are self-made catastrophes … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Miscellany | 6 Comments

I Do So Swear

Posted on March 31, 2007 by Timothy Burke

Bitch Ph.D nails the problem with a recently reported study on the relationship between day care and “disruptive behavior”: first, that “disruptive behavior” is (like “antisocial behavior” and a number of other synonymous terms) very much an eye-of-the-beholder category, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Popular Culture | 4 Comments

The Granularity of Respect

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Timothy Burke

There was a surprisingly heated discussion in a meeting I was at today about adding transgendered identities to a list of recognized identities in our anti-discrimination policy. Part of the problem, in my view, was that the document we were … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | 9 Comments