Category Archives: Swarthmore

Lashed to the Rack, or the Ideology of Incremental Improvement

I was walking through a poster session at a conference on educational and learning games some years ago and came across two very nice presenters who had created a game for students who were planning to study abroad in countries … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Games and Gaming, Politics, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

The Strains of Decision

I know I’ve written very similar posts to what follows, but this is really on my mind as I watch the ‘dance of enrollment’ with a bit more focus than in the past, due to my receiving the harshly punitive … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

Denial Is a River In Egypt

While I’m broadly in agreement with Adam Frank’s op-ed about the grave political and social costs of the current state of scientific literacy in America, there is something about the way that he comes at the issue that feels like … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics, Popular Culture, Swarthmore | 7 Comments

A Clean Room for Colleges?

Collaboration is one of those things that everyone in higher education claims to want more of, in more ways, and yet almost no one ever gets around to pushing beyond calls for more. I keep feeling in particular that there’s … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | Comments Off on A Clean Room for Colleges?

It’s a Confidential Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand

I had a heated conversation a few years back with someone I know whose work for the U.S. government routinely involves classified information. We weren’t talking about the content of that work, because this person takes classification very very seriously. … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

A New Approach To My Honors Seminar

Swarthmore’s Honors program is one of its claims to distinction. I’ve always enjoyed teaching the seminars, with their close-knit and ambitious discussions, but I have also found the whole program somewhat frustratingly in its eccentricities and emphasis. Essentially the program … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Africa, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Swarthmore | 5 Comments

A Partial Archive: Swarthmore 2012-2013

First Thought Second Thought Third Thought Fourth Thought Fifth Thought Afterthought (On Microaggression) There isn’t (and may not be for some time) a single narrative account of the recent turmoil at Swarthmore College, but the timeline looks something like this: … Continue reading

Posted in Swarthmore | 8 Comments

Afterthought (On Microaggression)

One thing that I know annoyed many of the students is that they set out to get action and ended up instead having to tell personal stories in order to educate peers and administrators and professors. Here’s one more story, … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 1 Comment

Fifth Thought: How (Not) to Play the Hunger Games

I was frustrated as a student activist in the 1980s about our dependency on the narratives and grammar of activism that we inherited from the 1960s and 1970s. Sometimes it felt more like we were historical re-enactors than people living … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 9 Comments

Fourth Thought: Respect Is a Two (Or More) Way Street

One of the more frustrating struggles threading through the protests has been about who is entitled to be “an ally”. What this often amounts to is well-meaning white kids begging for a gold star, an affirmation of their goodness. Sometimes … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 4 Comments