Gilman, Dorothy. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Under her full name, Dorothy Gilman Butters wrote a dozen well-received novels for young adults from 1949 to 1963. Then, in her mid-forties, she shifted gears considerably, developing a series of adult suspense stories around the quiet adventures of an unlikely intelligence operative. Published under…
Henry Giroux, in his new book Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education, defines “organized irresponsibility” as “a practice that underlies the economic Darwinism and civic corruption at the heart of American politics.” The culture this has engendered is going off the rails, as the sauntering gangs of “open carry” proponents, among so many other things, demonstrate. Unfortunately, it…
This kind of headline or link would likely get quite a few clicks as members of academe browse the virtual newsstand. Some purists, or are they Puritans, no doubt frown at the Internet habits of successful professionals, but is it really any better to author or consume articles with colons? Are they more serious, even…
I am certain some of us have found ourselves in this dilemma, especially if we have served in some administrative capacity. Someone “higher up” or “very high up,” for those of us who have worked in a culture that fosters hierarchical behavior, asks us to write a letter of recommendation on his or her behalf…
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Spy. 1821. James Fenimore Cooper produced novels that became prototypes for several genres of popular fiction. In fact, his significance as an influence in this regard has a great deal to do with the resurgence in broader critical interest in his work. The Spy is the first notable American novel to…
I am posting the following letter to this blog for three reasons: (1) it illustrates the types of complex and specialized issues that state conference leaders are frequently asked to address; (2) in some instances, such as this one, the conference leadership may take the position that there simply was not enough faculty input into…
This “book” seems very analogous to the sections of the WalMart and McDonald’s websites that are devoted to “career opportunities” with those companies–as if any significant number of those in the corporate management have worked their way up from stocking shelves, working the cash registers, or putting together sandwiches. Of course, adjunct faculty have invested so…
Yesterday Inside Higher Ed published a brief item entitled “Skeptical Reception for New Book on Becoming Adjunct.” The article reported on a new 51-page book, available for free via the Internet, with the remarkable title Become a Part-Time Professor: live and teach anywhere you like. Needless to say, more than a few “part-time professors” have…
American colleges and universities face a growing crisis in how to fund and even prioritize their capital construction needs. While most recognize that higher education institutions on some level can be reduced to the outcome produced by the intersection of people, programs and facilities, they typically mismanage how they approach facilities design and development. It’s…
My wife hates Faulkner. With a passion. So when we got married, there was no problem with my raiding her book collection and appropriating the novelist’s Light in August. I still have the copy, its blue-and-white cover, inside my wife’s signature in a girl’s handwriting, and a few notes made in the margin, mostly dutiful…