I do my yearly assessments on my birthday because New Years Eve is trite and there’s always a surcharge for everything. My birthday has passed and I have a long list of things for which I am grateful and a long list of hills yet to climb. But this week is The Official Time ForRead More “Gratitude”
Fascism
This week we have witnessed a phenomenal act of social movement-making in an era when many, myself included, have wondered if meaningful change in the U.S. still possible. Some of that worry is about aging, I’m sure. As you get older and the people around you get older you are inclined to wonder if theRead More “Fascism”
Open and Accessible to What and For Whom? Reflections on ICDE 2015
The International Conference on Open and Distance Education was hosted by the University of South Africa this month. Paul Prinsloo put together a truly remarkable set of keynote addresses and invited me to present the opening keynote. I have more than a few reflections, many of which are probably beyond the scope of a postRead More “Open and Accessible to What and For Whom? Reflections on ICDE 2015”
Becoming An Advisor
If you have been keeping track, I’m now an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. I’m also a faculty associate at the Berkman Institute for Internet & Society. And, I’m a contributing editor at Dissent and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. It’s a lot. I love it all. This post is aboutRead More “Becoming An Advisor”
Nascent Thoughts on Text Analysis Across Disciplines
I had cause to reflect on this recently. The following essay is a rough draft but a recent book review of Franco Moretti’s latest brought it to mind. More Scale, More Questions: Observations From Sociology Tressie McMillan Cottom Much of the debate about the whys and what-fors of textual analysis in the age of massiveRead More “Nascent Thoughts on Text Analysis Across Disciplines”
How I Read “Between The World and Me”
Editors at The Atlantic invited me to review Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between The World and Me”. It’s a three week book club. Today marks the second week. The invitation came in on a Thursday, I think. The first review was to go live on the following Monday. I’m a few months out of grad school readingRead More “How I Read “Between The World and Me””
New Topics in Social Computing: Data and Education
I have the great pleasure of being in conversation with some cool folks over at Eyebeam this evening. Sava Saheli Singh, Karen Gregory and I will be talking about data and education. We’ve been sending great emails back and forth. I feel confident saying we’re all interpreting those concepts broadly and deeply. Karen gave meRead More “New Topics in Social Computing: Data and Education”
Doing Sociology With New Sociologists
I suppose it is always a difficult time to teach sociology. The past few months have certainly been such a time. There seems to be a new video of police brutality and extrajudicial murder of mostly black men and women every week. People are actually debating if there is some essential genetic race feeling (which,Read More “Doing Sociology With New Sociologists”
Credit Scores, Life Chances, and Algorithms
There’s a great article in The Nation this week about social media and ad hoc credit scoring. Can Facebook assign you a score you don’t know about but that determines your life chances? Traditional credit scores like your FICO or your Beacon score can determine your life chances. By life chances, we generally mean howRead More “Credit Scores, Life Chances, and Algorithms”
Everything But The Burden: Publics, Public Scholarship, And Institutions
Institutions are inherently conservative. They are built to last. One way that institutions last is by diffusing threats to the status quo across org charts, rules, forms, email chains and meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. That is why it is ridiculous to expect college institutions to be radical. But, that is the claim thrownRead More “Everything But The Burden: Publics, Public Scholarship, And Institutions”