Category: Academia
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The Stupid Student Problem Part II
Let’s deconstruct some of the thinking of our “stupid students.” I may have been guilty of some of this thinking as I mentioned in Part I, which briefly speaks more generally about why we as teachers need to better articulate the logic behind our courses. I don’t need to go to class because -the notes…
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Grad School Advice
Tufts University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences recently blogged some advice for first year graduate students. While I’ve blogged on this topic before (here and here), I wanted to add some thoughts. I’ll break it down by section. Section 1: Get A Head Start (You’ll Thank Yourself Later) I tend to procrastinate. Ok, I…
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The Myth of Academia
Academia’s great. It’s a job where you get to do something about which you are passionate, read/write/think for a living, and have a flexible schedule. And if all else fails, it beats working in an office, right? Well, sorta. Let’s break it down: You get to do something about which you are passionate: Not all…
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Kickstarter
Every couple of months it seems that one of my friends teases me about one of my first blog posts [re-posted here]. I’ll admit liking Pomplamoose is pretty hipster, but hey I like the music. I also really like their success in going around the traditional gatekeepers of the music industry. They first gained success…
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A Reflection on Coursework
Normally, I try to blog every week, but I haven’t blogged for three months (not the most successful run in the history of blogging). Last semester was pretty busy, with organizing a conference and taking an extra course so I could finish up this summer (my final week of coursework is this week—woot). I hope…
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In the works
I haven’t blogged all that much this semester, but here are a few blog posts I’ve been working on: Rickrolling your students and other attempts at bonding through Internet phenomena Typos, bad grammar, and misunderstandings: How and why you should expose your students’ writing to the world for a laugh How to grade papers in…
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Another day, another debate
Another day, another blog post on the whole why you should/shouldn’t go to graduate school. I’ve harped on this before but I am so sick of hearing people talk about graduate school as if it’s a place that is only a waste of time with no job prospects whatsoever or as if it’s a religious…
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Am I a Historian?
The question “am I a historian?” first bothered me after reading a blog post written by colleague Jason Heppler, in which he writes: I am a young historian — heck, I barely even qualify for that title when I have no book to my name and don’t hold a PhD yet. But as a researcher…
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Creative Academic Writing
[This post stems from one of my courses this semester. Like UNL_DHS, reflections from and on this course UNL_H951 (Comparative History of Women and Gender), will appear relatively frequently for the next few months.] On the first day of my Comparative History of Women and Gender course taught by Margaret Jacobs, she asked us to…
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Going to Grad School
I have been neglecting posting links to other articles (“scribbles”), but here is a short (ok, not so short) round up (I briefly comment at the end as well) of a very interesting week of blog posts about deciding whether or not to go to graduate school and proposed reforms to graduate school. Larry Cebula’s…
Brian Sarnacki 