Category Archives: Academia

Good Job

Posted on September 6, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I was glad to see that Swarthmore College’s president, Alfred Bloom, signed a letter from liberal arts colleges pushing for federal requirements for open-access publishing of federally-funded research. Now all the presidents signing that letter just need to take the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 2 Comments

David Horowitz Has a New Friend

Posted on September 5, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Now guess who wants to get all those liberals with their political bias out of the universities? The President of Iran. You could change the names and this would sound like a press release from Horowitz or ACTA.

Posted in Academia | 4 Comments

You Can’t Tell the Players Without a Scorecard

Posted on August 29, 2006 by Timothy Burke

[Crossposted at Cliopatria] One of the overarching arguments in my current book project is that in Africanist scholarship, work by social historians has sometimes been difficult for outsiders to intuitively or empathetically grasp, that it is easier to connect to … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa | 15 Comments

The Sensation of Standing Still While Moving

Posted on August 28, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Been cleaning out my closet and files this week while getting ready for the semester. Looking at administrative materials, correspondence and so on that I kept from 1992-1995, when I had my first academic jobs at Rutgers, Emory and then … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Miscellany | 6 Comments

Process Comes First

Posted on August 24, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Erin O’Connor discusses protests against research on primates at UCLA and asks for academic bloggers to support the rights of researchers against the attacks of protesters. I think that’s a fair request, and that you can express that support regardless … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | 16 Comments

Getting the Cool Job

Posted on August 23, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Right around September, a lot of last year’s graduates from liberal arts colleges are discovering that they appear to be qualified for approximately none of the jobs that they might actually want to have. There are exceptions: students who have … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Miscellany | 15 Comments

The Disciplinary Pie

Posted on August 21, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Inside Higher Education has a story about a new book on the history of disciplines within the 20th Century university. The main argument, according to the IHE summary, is that the rise of the social sciences is the primary reason … Continue reading →

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The Shape of the Gordian Knot: Assessment

Posted on August 16, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I’m going to try and break down the coming Spellings Commision report in detail when the official final version is out, but by way of preparation, I’m interested in thinking creatively about the problem of assessment. I agree that we … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 7 Comments

ACTA on Core Curriculum

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Timothy Burke

ACTA has a report available online on their recommendations for a core curriculum. It’s actually from 2003, but I guess it has been made available online for the first time. If ACTA wants to figure out what was wrong with … Continue reading →

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Checking the Reputation Capital Account

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I tend to read academic work outside my fields of specialization to a fairly significant extent, which I suppose is not news to anyone who has read this blog for any length of time. Some of what I read I … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 1 Comment