Category Archives: Swarthmore

Third Thought: On Relevance

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

One of the best threads running through the events of the last week has been a critique by some students that classes at Swarthmore that are about race, class, gender, sexual orientation, that seem to be about oppression or marginalization, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Defining "Liberal Arts", Swarthmore | 3 Comments

Second Thought: On the Persistence of Wrong Action

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Earlier this year, the novelist Teju Cole wrote an essay for The New Yorker called “A Reader’s War”. A lot of people in my various social media feeds, on both the right and left, found its premise naive and its … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 1 Comment

First Thought: On Generosity and Teaching

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

In the last week, I’ve heard a lot of staff and faculty talk about how hard it is going to be to teach and advise students in the near-term future, how much they now feel that they have to second-guess … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | Comments Off on First Thought: On Generosity and Teaching

On the Clery Act Complaint

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I didn’t support the campaign to have fraternities restricted or banned at Swarthmore, largely for reasons I articulated earlier this academic year. I do support the students who’ve filed a Clery Act and Title IX complaint against Swarthmore, and similar … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 36 Comments

Outside the Classroom

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Timothy Burke

One of the questions about “ethical pedagogy” that I keep circling around, as long-time readers of this blog know, is what kinds of teaching or engagement faculty should pursue with students beyond formal courses. It is a cliche to say … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 17 Comments

A Different Diversity

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Following on Carl Edgar Blake II’s description of his abilities, let’s go back to the question of whether faculty in higher education ought to have doctorates, whether doctoral study in some form roughly resembling its present structure is the best … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Defining "Liberal Arts", Generalist's Work, Swarthmore | 2 Comments

Don’t Compromise. Improvise.

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Non-profit isn’t a status, it’s an ideal. The chief problem with “corporatization” in academia is not a greater emphasis on financial matters or the increased influence of companies on research. A non-profit organization needs to think just as much, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 3 Comments

More on Menand

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Almost back to feeling normal, so I thought I’d return to my somewhat fever-delirious notes on the Menand talk last week at Swarthmore and see what I could pull out of them. Menand’s talk, following some of his recent writing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Digital Humanities, Generalist's Work, Swarthmore | 2 Comments

The Usefulness of Uselessness, Redux

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Faculty who believe in the liberal arts approach and who think this means that there ought to be some kind of firewall between what students study and what they do in their careers or anything else in their lives after … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 10 Comments

On Swarthmore’s Sorority

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Timothy Burke

There’s been a running discussion at Swarthmore for a year now, mostly among the students and some between the students and the administration, about the effort to get a sorority established at the college. National media recently reported on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 23 Comments