Category Archives: Academia

Choose Your Own Adventure

Posted on September 21, 2005 by Timothy Burke

When you read a number of blogs, you get to a point where you know very well which articles in the mainstream media, especially the New York Times, are going to spawn a frenzied discussion. Then it’s primarily a question … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | 15 Comments

As Long As I’m At It…

Posted on September 15, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Ok, so I’ve suggested to the American Historical Association (AHA) that they should eliminate formal paper sessions with extreme prejudice. That goes for all big professional meetings (MLA, AAA, what have you): no more formal paper sessions in which participants … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 31 Comments

Diamond, Cultural Anthropology, Postcolonial Theory

Posted on September 7, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Frederick Errington and Deborah Gewertz have made a series of interesting posts about Jared Diamond, “Yali’s Question” and Papua New Guinea at Savage Minds. I agree with a number of comments I understand them to be making, particularly that Diamond’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 6 Comments

Passages

Posted on September 5, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I’ve been meaning for a while to blog about Passages, which is a web-based revival of a publication started and maintained by my graduate advisor, David William Cohen. I helped put together one of the original issues in the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa, Blogging | 7 Comments

Small Suggestion

Posted on September 1, 2005 by Timothy Burke

This idea has cropped up in a couple of variant forms in various places–Glenn Reynolds notes that the University of Tennessee has already taken 50 law students from Tulane and Loyola— but it’ll take quick action to systematically reproduce that … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 11 Comments

Image of Africa Syllabus

Posted on August 25, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Here’s the syllabus for one of my fall courses. I’ve taught it before, but this is a fairly substantial fiddling with some of what I’ve done in the past. It’s a topic also that I’ve really changed my pedagogical orientation … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa, Popular Culture | 12 Comments

DeLong, Diamond and Savage Minds

Posted on July 29, 2005 by Timothy Burke

[cross-posted at Cliopatria] Brad DeLong has been fairly harsh in his response to the Savage Minds bloggers on the subject of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel. I also have problems with the SM bloggers in their reading (or viewing) … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa, Books | 6 Comments

A Thing I’ve Learned About Teaching

Posted on July 20, 2005 by Timothy Burke

One thing I’ve learned about teaching over the years is that in an undergraduate course, it’s usually a mistake to assign the best scholarly works that you otherwise rely on in your field. There’s some exceptions. I teach an upper-level … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 9 Comments

Book Notes: Theory’s Empire

Posted on July 13, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Warning: this is a really, really long post. Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 31 Comments

Flawless Victory

Posted on July 10, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Well, so much for Tribble. Seriously. Whomever he/she is, I hope there’s at least some reflection going on there in the wake of some really very careful, methodical criticism from, oh, just about every academic blogger in existence. I didn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Blogging | 4 Comments