As the hoaxers explained in Areo, they targeted fields they pejoratively dub “grievance studies” — “gender studies, masculinities studies, queer studies, sexuality studies, psychoanalysis, critical race theory, critical whiteness theory, fat studies, sociology, and educational philosophy” — which they consider peculiarly susceptible to fashionable nonsense. Does the hoax identify something uniquely rotten in gender and sexuality studies, or could…
The three academics call themselves “left-leaning liberals.” Yet they’re dismayed by what they describe as a “grievance studies” takeover of academia, especially its encroachment into the sciences… The trio say they’ve proved that higher ed’s fixation on identity politics enables “absurd and horrific” scholarship. Their submissions were outlandish—but no more so, they insist, than others written in earnest and published by these journals.
Gender, Place & Culture, for instance, published a 2017 paper that wasn’t a hoax analyzing the “feminist posthumanist politics” of what squirrels eat. This year Hypatia, a journal of feminist philosophy, published an analysis of a one-woman show featuring “the onstage cooking of hot chocolate and the presence of a dead rat.” The performance supposedly offers “a synthaesthetic portrait of poverty and its psychological fallout.”
More than half of the hostile responses to The Last Jedi, episode eight of the Star Wars saga, were politically motivated trolling or the result of non-human bot activity, according to an academic paper published by a US digital media expert. Morten Bay, a research fellow at the University of Southern California (USC), analysed Twitter activity about the…
Flight 93 crash site and Tower of Voices. Well worth the side trip on the way back from a weekend gig. I had to explain to the girl why the 9/11/2001 newspaper in the exhibit didn’t mention the attacks (it had been printed overnight). She was especially moved by the recorded messages left by some…
The girl performed musical commercials for a fund-raiser in the Laurel Highlands. On the way back we stopped at a Denny’s, and after I paid the bill the waitress said she was impressed to see a teenaged girl enjoying an outing with her father without having a phone glued to her hand. (Carolyn had just…
Who, I thought, besides a multidisciplinary team in search of research funding, could possibly imagine that a digital account of the impact of reading digital print on human cognition would be effective? For such an account rests on the supremacy of the very thing it seeks to counteract, which can be summarized as a view of the human mind/brain that is itself computational in form.
There are ways to raise a child’s test scores that have nothing to with helping that child learn. In the past 10 years I have seen far more students — even the most capable, most brilliant students — paralyzed with fear about grades. In high school, you got good grades if you followed instructions and…
I am not particularly into anime, though when I was about 12 I was entranced to run across episodes of Star Blazers that aired on my local TV station one summer at about 7am. Having said that, I found this trailer for a (theoretical) anime reworking of Star Wars very appealing. Similar:Emily Dickinson’s Singular Scrap…
Similar:Forgotten closet box: powder blue summer suit with a crisp 1990 $10 bill in the pocket and…The chunky laptop seems to boot and the …DesignA pallet of cabinet fronts and structural elements to flesh out #neovictorian #steampunk i…PersonalCarolyn choreographed a fight-dance adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.PersonalBeautifying the exterior of the fantasy cruiser from the bedtime…
The New York Public Library has a program that lets youths check out briefcases, handbags, and neckties for job interviews or other formal occasions.
Transcript: Me: (Starts writing a routine email for textbook adoption committee.) Me: (Accidentally paraphrases part of Roy Batty’s “Tears in rain” monologue.) Me: (Checks IMDB to refresh my memory of the full quote.) Me: (Checks Blade Runner Wiki to confirm umlaut in Tannhäuser Gate.) Me: (Looks up Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser.) Me: What, what was…
As circulation has declined, local newspapers have had to adjust for the loss in revenue, sometimes by shrinking the size of their staffs, sometimes by selling out or closing up shop all together.
It’s a myth that humanities majors don’t care about post-graduation employment. What changed was the safety valve of subsequent law school enrollment.
Law school was long the default post-graduation plan for majors in qualitative fields. As long as you had the prospect of a lucrative legal career after college, you could safely major in English or poli sci. Those students didn’t ignore the vocational imperative; they just postponed it. And for a long time, that worked pretty well.
But the Great Recession, combined with AI and offshoring, did a number on law as a career option.
The Cask of Amotillado (read by Dennis Jerz, for WAOB Audio Theatre) Similar:Masked up, so I don't infect you, in case you are in a vulnerable group. Feeling healthy. …CultureIt is often said that autistic people lack empathy. Some autistic people are told that the…@ItsEmilyKaty supplies another excellent…CultureTom Bissell writes a letter to Niko Bellic…
This is an important time to teach people what journalists do and why it matters. “The media” is much larger than “journalists devoted to the objective coverage of the news.” If you don’t like the slant, or the shallowness, or the opportunism of the media you run across, then check out several different sources, including…
Similar:Fall 2023 Grades: Submitted! AcademiaYour second attempt at modeling #medievalyork fortifications in #blender3d will be better …Your second attempt at modeling #medieva…AestheticsAnd so it begins.BooksA little better all the time.A little better all the time.PersonalMaking movie magic with my dueling gut-shot daughterAestheticsColossal Cave: The Board Game by Arthur O'DwyerThe kids and I enjoy nerdy board…
Similar:When you hear your daughter the understudy is going on for a sold-out show. Live theater i… CultureSibling Affection and Paternal Abstraction as Drawn By a Six-Year-Old; or, Aren't My Daugh…My six-year-old daughter is a very visua…AmusingBrass desk lamp, with translucent green shade and glowing light bulb filament. #blender3dPersonalWhen she isn't playing Hodel, she'll be…
Similar:The Duolingo owl has been judging my German every day for the last year.EducationLeftovers from the food my colleagues brought in to bribe/reward those few students who sh… Leftovers from the food my colleagues b…AcademiaGetting in the Christmas spirit.PersonalLate night set construction for The Miracle Worker.ArtThe girl's entrance as Marley's Ghost.PersonalHappy birthday to the son.Personal
If you are writing a poem because you want to capture a feeling that you experienced, then you don’t need these tips. Just write whatever feels right. Only you experienced the feeling that you want to express, so only you will know whether your poem succeeds. If, however, your goal is to communicate with a reader — drawing…
Similar:Celebration of Writing — a big presentation day for freshman writing classes.PersonalLive theater. August Wilson's Jitney, in the back yard of the August Wilson House.PersonalIt will be harder to leave Facebook than it was to leave Twitter It was not that hard to leave Twitter….CybercultureSpanish dance @laurelballettheater @westmorelandsymphony The NutcrackerDanceChilling on Forbes Avenue with a…