Category Archives: Academia

The Trouble With Tribble

Posted on July 10, 2005 by Timothy Burke

A pseudonymous professor at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest advises academic job candidates not to blog. His remarks are addressed to graduate students and junior professors, but honestly, they apply to anyone who might ever want to … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Blogging | 9 Comments

Calibrating the Classroom

Posted on July 7, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I’ve done uncompensated overload teaching in the past and I suspect I’ll do it again in the future. Now I admit I’ve cried “uncle” a few times when my service load and course load have conspired to make my work … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 13 Comments

War News Radio

Posted on July 6, 2005 by Timothy Burke

There’s a really interesting, exciting project here at Swarthmore that I’ve been tangentially involved with (mostly I’ve been passive-aggressively shirking my responsibilities to the group, a skill I have honed to a fine polish). The basic founding idea, from one … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | Comments Off

Book Notes: Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation

Posted on June 28, 2005 by Timothy Burke

There was a good deal of discussion back in May about David Greenberg’s Slate article, “That Barnes and Noble Dream”, about whether academic historians should aspire to be “populizers”. I thought Greenberg had some interesting observations that I didn’t always … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 9 Comments

African-American History and the Philadelphia Schools

Posted on June 23, 2005 by Timothy Burke

[cross-posted at Cliopatria] Back from a long trip, I read with interest in yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer of a debate over the plan to make African-American history a requirement in Philadelphia’s high school curriculum. The debate has been particularly ignited by … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa | Comments Off

Book Notes: Jon Wiener, Historians in Trouble

Posted on May 30, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I’m going to return to my aspiration to make regular entries about books I’m reading, partly to help me to work my way through the growing stack of things I’ve put on my “to be read” pile. These aren’t reviews: … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 2 Comments

Graduation

Posted on May 30, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Yet another graduation yesterday. A very nice one, actually: beautiful weather and some unusually good speeches. Jonathan Franzen was brief but both funny and slyly profound. Our president gave (for him) an unusually pointed speech as well about the dangers … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 1 Comment

Pedantry and Critical Thought

Posted on May 26, 2005 by Timothy Burke

John Bruce has a long series of posts detailing his critique of academic quality control. His main complaint, as I understand it, is that in some disciplines (perhaps most or all: he’s focused on English but there’s no restriction of … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 12 Comments

Welcoming New Arrivals to the Sekrit Clubhouse

Posted on May 25, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Some time ago, a friend and colleague of mine used to call me a lot just to talk about our field, my friend’s job situation, and other stuff. My friend finally got in a good job situation and we talked … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 2 Comments

Spies Like Us

Posted on May 24, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I’m enjoying the new group blog Savage Minds. I particularly admire that they’ve been able to keep the blog fairly focused on their own discipline, something that I think we historians at Cliopatria struggle with from time to time. Oneman’s … Continue reading →