The Death of the Mentor

In the best of all possible worlds, my students end the semester with renewed interest in learning. Having developed a commitment to improving their communication skills, their writing eclipses what they produced at the start of the term. They might be able to catch a few more literary allusions, but that’s not absolutely necessary. Oh,…

The Value of Useless Research

The following guest post is by Johann Neem, associate professor of history at Western Washington University: A recent paper by Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein argues that since many papers in literature are rarely cited, colleges and universities should reallocate their priorities in order to make better use of literature professors’ time. Prof. Bauerlein…