Academic Productivity
‘Distant Reading’ English Syllabi
There has been a great deal of interest in the Open Syllabus Project, including an article in The New York Times. I thought I’d take a look at it and see what tentative conclusions I could draw (a la Franco Moretti’s Distant Reading) about what is being taught in my field of English in the United States.…
Regarding the Artist
Years ago, before I even thought about teaching as a full-time and permanent career, I spent a few semesters working for an online “university.” I won’t call what I did “teaching.” After all, the institution didn’t. I was a “facilitator” responsible for a section or two of the required Composition course. It had been designed…
Joint Statement by BGSU Administration and BGSU Faculty Association (AAUP Chapter) on Criticism by Buckeye Firearms Association
December 10, 2015 Colleagues, The BGSU Administration and the BGSU Faculty Association are aware that several faculty members have been mentioned in communications by external groups regarding recent Ohio legislative measures. In addition, we are also aware of allegations that several faculty may have violated University policy regarding use of the BGSU email system. We…
Bowling Green Newspaper Editor Fired over Gun-Related Editorial
I recently did a post on an Ohio gun group’s criticism of BGSU faculty and staff who contacted their legislators to oppose campus-carry legislation that has passed the Ohio House and is now being considered by the Ohio Senate: https://academeblog.org/2015/12/01/ohio-gun-group-castigates-bgsu-faculty-for-expressing-opposition-to-campus-carry-legislation/ In a very related story, the editor of the local newspaper, the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune,…
Why Would Academia Be an A-Hole-Free Zone?
This is an addendum to Aaron’s critique of Ranii Neutill’s piece on Salon, “Sixteen Years in Academia Made Me an A-Hole.” Before I was in graduate school and found a library job in the summer to supplement my grad-teaching stipend, I must have had 30 to 40 jobs–everything from being a dishwasher, a soda-jerk, and a…
What Do Professors Do?
Early in his controversial 14-year tenure as Chancellor of the California State University system, Charles Reed notoriously told a public audience that faculty members work only two or three days a week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The comment sparked a firestorm of protest, but it sadly reflected an all too common perception among…
The Miami University AAUP Chapter Has a Website—and Major Changes Are Being Imposed on the University’s Regional Campuses
This relatively new but rapidly growing chapter in Ohio now has a nice website at http://www.miamiaaup.org/. The chapter news also can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. The website includes a link to an article in The Miami Student [http://miamistudent.net/] by Megan Zahneis, reporting on the major administrative restructuring occurring at Miami’s regional campuses: “Miami’s…
What is your campus’s approach to collegiality?
This is a guest post by Timothy Shiell, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Stout and a member of the American Philosophical Association’s Committee for the Defense of the Professional Rights of Philosophers. He is a scholar of and advocate for academic freedom and the author of Campus Hate Speech on Trial. Another…