Background: One of the hazards of living in Majuro is the dog pack. These dogs are neither stray nor feral, but are not controlled or generally treated as pets. I was talking with a student about a particular dog down…
Category: Higher Education
Academics in the Middle
Over the summer, at a conference-closing roundtable, the discussion turned to what senior scholars could do for younger ones, with the latter meaning mostly graduate students. As neither category applied to me, I slipped out of the room for more…
The Value of a Literature Course
At Chronicle Vitae, Rob Jenkins has written about the ways he tries to sell students on taking literature courses. I quibble with the idea of literature as “a record” of what people thought: while the ideals, lifestyles, and assumptions of…
5 Ways I’m Changing My Syllabi This Semester
This semester, I’m not teaching any new courses, so with two weeks to go until classes begin, I’m refreshing previous syllabi, but I want to do more than change the dates.The following are five steps I’m taking to continue developing…
New Humanities Ph.D.s Should Leave the Country? Not So Fast.
Is the grass really greener on the other side of the ocean? Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece advising new Ph.D.s to seek employment overseas. I made that choice a few years ago, and while I don’t regret it, I…
A Conceptual Framework for Online Learning & Teaching
Note: This post was written as a reflection for a course in the Professional Certificate in Online Education program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.