The short answer is that when I started writing publicly I was too stupid to choose to do so anonymously. The longer answer takes a little back fill. There is a lot to be angry about these days. I think there’s even an official book of all the things we should be angry about atRead More “Academic Cowards and Why I Don’t Write Anonymously”
The New Black Codes
That’s all I’m talking about here on NPR in a discussion of David Brooks’ idyllic moralizing on pot and the harsh reality of petty crimes derailing the life chances of African Americans in this country. I talk about this concept a great deal in my undergraduate classes. I also have a paper making the roundsRead More “The New Black Codes”
Eating in School Cafeterias Isn’t Apartheid and Other Things I Shouldn’t Have to Tell Grown People
There is a troubling pattern of racialized rhetoric to education activism. The latest to come to my attention is from Grant Wiggins, president of Authentic Education. He begins the short post with a definition of apartheid and ends it by making a parallel to teachers having separate eating and bathroom facilities from students. I’m notRead More “Eating in School Cafeterias Isn’t Apartheid and Other Things I Shouldn’t Have to Tell Grown People”
Wacky Weed, Tacky Racism: The HigherEd Dead End
I will live a long time and not forgive the Internet for making me read David Brooks’ New York Times weed opus. If you missed it, I apologize in advance. This week David Brooks responded to Colorado’s recent decriminalization of marijuana with a retrospective on his own experience smoking the wacky tobacky. In “Weed —Read More “Wacky Weed, Tacky Racism: The HigherEd Dead End”
Dude, Where’s The Race in Your Class Analysis of HigherEd?
A key status marker of any profession is engagement in fights about the state of said profession. For the past few weeks a particularly public fight about adjuncts and academia has been waged across blogs, online media and social media. I do not want to jump into that debate. I do not have a dogRead More “Dude, Where’s The Race in Your Class Analysis of HigherEd?”
What I Know For Sure
Nothing. Sorry for the bad title but I just read three issues of Oprah magazine on a long cross-country trip. It seemed right. 2013 was a busy year for highered, research, and yours truly. A few round-ups and random thoughts about 2014: At UVA’s Carter G Woodson Institute I had the privilege of connecting theRead More “What I Know For Sure”
Teaching Stratification and Blogging as Pedagogy
I mentioned before that I try to push my pedagogy beyond what worked for me as a student. I am teaching “Class, Status, and Power” this Spring. It is a basic sociology stratification course. This term I will experiment with offering alternatives to The Paper. I am starting with a platform I am most comfortableRead More “Teaching Stratification and Blogging as Pedagogy”
Crystal Ball Blogging: “Next Generation HigherEd”
Tom Vander Ark has a book called “Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World.” He also has a website, Getting Smart. Vander Ark also knows the future of higher education: Next-generation higher education systems will share ten elements: States replacing accreditation with performance contracting around outcomes (including real writing and math standards). LearnersRead More “Crystal Ball Blogging: “Next Generation HigherEd””
Just How Krazy is Kanye? Ethnographic Lessons. No, Really.
Kanye West has been called many things. Most of them are euphemisms for the very prejudicial and problematic “crazy” designation. I’m on a self-imposed vacation. I am only doing things for fun. When commentary about the latest Kanye “episode” crossed my social media, I decided to indulge. As I watched Kanye’s interview on Sway’s radioRead More “Just How Krazy is Kanye? Ethnographic Lessons. No, Really.”
The ‘H’ Is Silent: Historically Black Colleges and Mission Conflict #ecsucuts #highered
Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) is a small, public college in North Carolina. It is also a historically black college. Recently, the mission of the state’s University of NC system, of which ECSU became a part in 1972, has bumped up against the historic mission that most HBCUs share. Apparently, seven degree programs at ECSURead More “The ‘H’ Is Silent: Historically Black Colleges and Mission Conflict #ecsucuts #highered”