Category Archives: Academia

From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: Republic of Signs

Posted on August 9, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Continuing my voyage in the Wayback Machine to the early 1990s, I was re-reading Anne Norton’s 1993 work Republic of Signs: Liberal Theory and American Popular Culture. I liked the book when I first read it and I still do. … Continue reading →

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We, Myself and Them

Posted on August 8, 2006 by Timothy Burke

One thing I’ve been thinking about in the last two days when I’ve taken a break from writing to catalog books is the academic moment of the early 1990s in the humanities. That’s when I was working on my dissertation, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves | 4 Comments

Great Americans!!!!!! Like Plato!

Posted on August 3, 2006 by Timothy Burke

As you all know, I’m against snarkiness and mockery and so on. So please excuse the following lapse. But after being directed by Scott Eric Kaufman to this short commentary on footnoting distributions in Critical Inquiry, I really couldn’t help … Continue reading →

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“Core Truths”

Posted on August 1, 2006 by Timothy Burke

There was an interesting discussion a week back at Sherman Dorn’s blog about the Ward Churchill case. I’m sick of talking about Churchill, but the comments thread ultimately goes off in another direction that interests me more. Dean Saitta observes … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 6 Comments

Historian as Snoop: Experiencing the Archive

Posted on July 31, 2006 by Timothy Burke

[cross-posted at Cliopatria] One thing that I think historians bring to the academic table is their experience of working with archives of all kinds. Lots of scholarly disciplines are involved in going to libraries and databases for their evidence, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa | 2 Comments

Whigging Out

Posted on July 22, 2006 by Timothy Burke

A lot of people were wondering, in the aftermath of the investigation into Ward Churchill, about whether many scholarly works have the same kind of dubious manipulations of evidence when examined closely. Quite a few people inferred from the apparent … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa | 2 Comments

Today’s Fun Quote From the Archives

Posted on July 20, 2006 by Timothy Burke

March 6, 1953. British South Africa Police, Security Branch Memoranda on Native Affairs. Memorandum Number 75. “VICTORIA FALLS Three letters were found in the Victoria Falls area recently. One envelope bearing Northern Rhodesia postal stamps was addressed to the MAOTSE … Continue reading →

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You Have No Idea

Posted on July 19, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Margaret Soltan in the last couple of months has sometimes posted links to stories about the wretched state of many European university systems once you go below the level of the elite few institutions at the pinnacle of a given … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa | 2 Comments

Live the Future You Want

Posted on June 14, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I’m not especially fair-minded by nature. I have to struggle against temper, a quick tongue, an instinct to mock. Some of the long-windedness here is my way of guarding against those inclinations, getting myself to inhabit the obligations I’ve set … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

“Many” Is a Numbered Word and Other Miscellaneous Replies

Posted on May 30, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Part II of further thoughts on teaching, politicization and the like, this time in reply to the defenders of ACTA’s report. 1) Erin O’Connor, writing at ACTA’s blog, offers a useful reconceptualization of the ACTA report’s claims. O’Connor writes that … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 10 Comments