Category Archives: Uncategorized

While glancing briefly at my gmail spam folder, I found these lovely seasons’ greetings: Man power, sex-mas is comming soon! It’s nice to see them getting into the holiday spirit, instead of relying on fear and self-loathing.  I almost sang … Continue reading →

I have a “Views” essay on InsideHigherEd.com this morning, urging faculty to see assessment as a force for good.  From the point of view of actual experts on assessment–which I am not–it probably has a bit of a “water is … Continue reading →

You might be teaching a gen-ed class if it’s November and it occurs to you that not all of your students know your name. (In fact, I discovered this when a student was reduced to describing me to A, whom … Continue reading →

For the second year, I’m teaching a section of the yearlong thesis preparation sequence in my school’s honors program. To ensure continuity of expectations with the other sections, we use the same basic assignments, which in the fall culminate in … Continue reading →

This is probably the wrong semester to plug this, as some of my vaunted organizational skills have succumbed a little under the pressure of some, um, interesting campus developments, but I did want to draw people’s attention to the public … Continue reading →

Today’s Doonesbury is about teaching in the laptop era: Zipper clearly needs to visit Inbox Zero to manage his e-mail. This strip raises some questions for me, though: Aside from the e-mail joke, what do you take to be the … Continue reading →

This poster is in many of the bathrooms on campus; I think it’s provided by one of the state’s health insurance providers: Notice: whether you’re sick or you’re well, the best thing to do is to STAY AWAY FROM PEOPLE! … Continue reading →

Now that the pre-Christmas onslaught of catalogs is in full-swing, it has been amusing to see what kinds of companies think I’d be interested in their products.  The comedic winner, by a wide margin, so far this year is Source … Continue reading →

The November issue of Bookslut is online, including my column on Freud.  This month, I discuss Studies on Hysteria, volume II of the Standard Edition.  In particular, I’m interested in Freud’s prefaces to his own works–moments when he addresses his … Continue reading →

I’m shocked–SHOCKED!–that, after the first full day of registration, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen course has 9 students, while Digital Literary Studies has zero. How could a comic-based course possibly be more popular than a theoretical introduction to humanities computing, … Continue reading →