The Occupy Movement has been the first major grassroots progressive movement in the United States in decades. But, at its core, the appeal of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been that it is politically unaffiliated, and that lack of structure, or, more precisely, that lack of structural purpose, has also been its undoing. Occupy…
I have been thinking a great deal about John Ziker and his coleagues’ detailed study of the work that we, as faculty members, do, and I think that their study supports, directly or at least conceptually, most of the following observations: 1. We work very hard—much harder than most people realize and, in most cases,…
Tonight, President Obama will be attending the White House Correspondents Dinner for the sixth time during his presidency. Below are links to the transcripts of his remarks at the first five dinners. I think that they are of interest for several reasons. First, he does this sort of thing better than any president—if not in history,…
Yesterday, the White House issued this proclamation: “On Loyalty Day, we renew our conviction to the principles of liberty, equality, and justice under the law. We accept our responsibilities to one another. And we remember that our differences pale in comparison to the strength of the bonds that hold together the most diverse Nation on…
My original post on this singular and provocative study of faculty work is available at: https://academeblog.org/2014/04/29/what-we-do-with-our-time/ I would like to thank the authors again for their work on the study [reported in The Blue Review at: https://thebluereview.org/faculty-time-allocation/] and for then agreeing to answer my follow-up questions. Katie Demps, Matt Genuchi, David Nolin, and John Ziker collectively…
This is a news release from the Department of Education. My own institution, Wright State University, is not on the list, but a member of our executive committee observed: “It’s great that we’re not on it, but unfortunately this is still a problem on our campus. We also have no rape crisis center either on…
The following post was written by Jack Rasmus and is being re-posted here with his permission. Dr. Rasmus teaches Political Economy at St. Marys College in Moraga, California. He is author of the 2012 and 2010 books, Obama’s Economy and Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression, published by Pluto Press. He hosts the weekly radio…
I have read some blistering commentaries on Sarah Palin’s obtuseness to her own stupidity and to the bottom-feeding political impulses that drive those to whom she seems to have the most enduring appeal. But, even given the savageness with which she has often been criticized and characterized, the following critique still manages to stand out:…
John Ziker, chairman of the Anthropology Department at Boise State University, typically conducts field research in the Taimyr Autonomous Region of north-central Siberia, studying the Ust’-Avam, where people depend on hunting, fishing, and gathering for the majority of their food. But he and his colleagues Katherine Demps, David Nolin, and Matt Genuchi, have now turned their…
In a previous post, I highlighted the consistent reductions in the state support to public higher education in Louisiana during Bobby Jindal’s terms as governor. More specifically, the governor recently announced what he has declared is a large increase in state support for higher education, but it turns out that more than half of the…