Many times since 2010 I have thought my quest for a professorship was over, only to find myself looking through job listing and hoping against hope for the elusive post. Hundreds of applications later, sometimes 70 or more in a year, the impossible quest needs to end. I finished the doctorate…
Tag: professors
Duke University historian Nancy MacLean is currently a trendy historian who spent 2017 touring and promoting her book Democracy in Chains. The book has some serious scholarship flaws, which have been addressed by Henry Farrell and Steven Teles on Vox, a website considered progressive on most issues. MacLean has made the stunning…
Navigating school requires social skills, and often the most successful academically are also successful socially. Despite the stereotypes of jocks and nerds, geeks and goths, consider actual data. To participate in athletics, a minimum GPA is required. I recall the star athletes from my high school and today those individuals…
Some books and noted speakers make the case that academia is one of the better career paths for autistic adults capable of completing the required education. I’m unconvinced this is good advice for anyone, much less autistic individuals. Let me begin with the academic job market. Even within STEM fields,…
In several earlier posts I have noted systemic failures at the University of Minnesota. In August, 2006, my misadventures began. By the end of September, my position in the Writing Center ended in disaster and a complaint to the university relating to the experience. The university has been less and…
Thanks to a complete breakdown in the University’s system and a professor I will never forgive, I endured a trip to the Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity. It was a stupid situation and far too much for my system. Before the meeting I was already in sorry shape.…
Not even two months into the year and I am exhausted. I’m possibly the most exhausted I have been since moving to Minnesota. It is the mix of university nonsense, cold weather, aching body, renovation disorder, and so forth. When one of our “kids” became ill Monday night, it was…