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What Do Professors Do All Summer? Thursday
Welcome to te penultimate day of this week-long excursion into the summer work schedule of academics — or, really, one academic. Me. If you’ve come this far, I’ll presume you’ve read the earlier...
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What Do Professors Do All Summer? Friday
The very last day of my summertime academic chronicle. The work will go on, but I’m only recording a week’s worth of it on the blog. If you’re just tuning in, for the past week (starting on...
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Summertime, and the Living Is Busy
The week’s chronicle of precisely how an academic (specifically, me) spends each summer day is now complete. Those who followed this admittedly dull exercise might have some questions. Those who...
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Harry Potter, Seriously
Children’s literature is literature. Intelligent adults already know this. However, as those of you who study or write or teach children’s literature are well aware, the world is full of alleged...
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How Much Is Too Much?
Though I often attempt to dispense advice from this blog, I now have a question of my own. How much is too much? There’s one request that I never turn down: when I am asked to write a letter on behalf...
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A Brief Inquiry Into the Paradoxes of Academic Achievement
When I started writing what was then a biography of Crockett Johnson (back in the late 1990s), I thought: When I finish this, I really will have achieved something. Even as I wrote other books, I...
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Children’s Literature and Comics/Graphic Novels at MLA 2013
For those heading to the MLA in Boston (3-6 January 2013), here’s a handy list of panel sessions on either children’s literature or comics/graphic novels. I compiled the list below by searching the...
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Well, at least she published a sort-of correction
As you probably already know, Forbes‘ Susan Adams contributed to the professors-don’t-really-work myth in naming “University Professor” the “Least Stressful Job of 2013″ (Forbes, 3 Jan. 2013). After...
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Vanity, Thy Name Is Lawsuit
As you may have heard, the Edwin Mellen Press is suing librarian Dale Askey and his employer, McMaster University, for damages in excess of $4 million. Why? The suit alleges that Askey is guilty of...
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The Edwin Mellen Effect
It’s Opposites Day at The Chronicle of Higher Education. The headline reads, “Edwin Mellen Press Drops Lawsuit Against University Librarian.” The article reports that Edwin Mellen Press has...
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Professors Get Summers Off; or, How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Being a college professor would be a great job! You do a little teaching, and get the summers off! — frequently expressed misunderstanding To be clear: being a professor is a great job. Since I elect...
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Stylish Academic Writing
No, the title of this post is not an oxymoron. Academics can write with style. Some of us do. All of us should. In Stylish Academic Writing, Helen Sword offers advice for all who aspire to write with...
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This Job Can Kill You. Literally.
As you likely already know, Margaret Mary Vojtko — an adjunct professor of French for 25 years — was found dead on her front lawn on September 1st. Facing mounting medical bills and lacking money to...
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Kansas Board of Regents Revokes Right to Freedom of Speech
As faculty grade their last student papers and exams before leaving town for the Christmas holidays, the Kansas Board of Regents quietly — and unanimously — voted to revoke their academic freedom and...
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Higher Education is Not a Reality TV Show; or, How A&E’s “Duck Dynasty”...
On Facebook, a friend recently asked me how the recent controversy over the Kansas Board of Regents’ new social media policy differs from A&E’s suspending of Phil Robertson from the Duck Dynasty...
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Kansas, the banana republic
It’s an anti-free speech manifesto that sounds like a pronouncement from the government of a banana republic. The Board of Regents truly should back up, take a deep breath, and decide on something that...
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Kansas State University Distinguished Professors: Open Letter to the Kansas...
23 Dec. 2013 Dear Kansas Board of Regents, As University Distinguished Professors at Kansas State University, we write to call for the immediate repeal of the new social media policy, and to ask that...
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Children’s Literature and Comics/Graphic Novels at MLA 2014
With thanks to Craig Svonkin for assembling the children’s literature panels list and Charles Hatfield for assembling the comics panels list, here’s a list of panel sessions on either children’s...
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Distinguished Professors from KSU and KU: Open Letter to the Kansas Board of...
Dear Kansas Board of Regents, As University Distinguished Professors at Kansas State University and Distinguished Professors at the University of Kansas, we write to express our continued concern...
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Kansas Board of Regents, Freedom of Speech, and Bad Faith
When the Kansas Board of Regents announced its new social media policy on December 18, I thought it must have made a mistake. After all, this Board of Regents had seemed an ally of higher education in...
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