Talking For-Profits

The lovely Kali-Ahset Amen invited me to speak about some of my work on for-profit colleges on WRFG in Atlanta, GA. As is my usual schtick, I attempted to discuss the topic more broadly to include questions of race, gender, class, and access. Click to listen: tressieshow-tressietalk Many thanks to my friend, Jade Davis, for theRead More “Talking For-Profits”

Here’s an interesting one from orgtheory via Katherine Chen’s work on organizations and charisma. I find this line of questioning very interesting. As someone mentioned in the comments the succession of Apple post-Jobs exposed, for some, the limitations of personal charisma in necessary bureaucratic processes. But I also think further back to civil rights organizationsRead More

Amazing Grace: The End of Student Loan Six Month “Grace” Periods

From the Chicago Tribune today comes a story about what, I agree, is a criminally under-reported change in the administration of federal student loans. The byline reads: Starting Sunday, grad students to pay interest while in school, undergrads lose 6-month grace period That’s true but a conversation on Twitter earlier today made clear that thisRead More “Amazing Grace: The End of Student Loan Six Month “Grace” Periods”

All Your Skinfolk Ain’t Kin Folk?

That’s what my spirit animal, Zora Neale Hurston, is quoted as saying: “All my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.” My experiences in academe have been…a textbook case of everything that could happen would happen. That includes a rocky start in a different program and a transfer and yadda, yadda, yadda. Needless to say my experiences primedRead More “All Your Skinfolk Ain’t Kin Folk?”

Reading Privilege

My tweep and friend, Melonie Fullick, has written a great piece about the privilege bubble in academe. It’s in response to an article that many of us in my twitterverse found disturbing in its lack of critical reflection:   Yesterday, as I was taking a short break between grading assignments and exams and working onRead More “Reading Privilege”