MetaFilter posts tagged with academia

The Year in Dude Studies.

grapefruitmoon — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:27:49 -0800

Dissertations on His Dudeness. (SLNYT) Descriptions of a new book of academic essays on The Big Lebowski such as: "“ ‘The Big Lebowski’ and Paul de Man: Historicizing Irony and Ironizing Historicism”

Make Your Own Academic Sentence

caddis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:27:17 -0800

Pootwattle the Virtual Academic(TM) says: The conceptual logic of millennial hedonism is often found in juxtaposition with, if not in direct opposition to, the sublimation of difference. Smedley the Virtual Critic(TM) responds: Pootwattle's hastily published paper on the relationship between the conceptual logic of millennial hedonism and the sublimation of difference should resolve the disputes over terminology that have plagued the field since its inception. nifty

"The Muslim Georgetown"

escabeche — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:01:04 -0800

Zaytuna College in Berkeley, CA will accept its first students in the fall of 2010 or 2011. Founded by Sheik Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, it will be the first accredited Islamic college in the United States, open to men and women of all religions.

Historian of a rich and terrible past

dickymilk — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:11:41 -0800

Louis Crompton, the author of Homosexuality and Civilization and Byron and Greek Love, has died. Crompton's pioneering work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the 1970's helped to pave the way for gay and lesbian studies in the American university, but his account of the history of gay identity left him on the unfashionable side of the essentialism/constructionism debate, and his name is often eclipsed by his flashier contemporaries. From Homosexuality and Civilization:

For many centuries in Europe, homosexuality was conceived principally as certain sexual acts... we must not be complicit in this dehumanization. These "sodomites" were human beings with whom the modern gay man may claim brotherhood and the modern lesbian recognize as sisters. To divide history in two in 1869 at the moment when the word "homosexual" was coined is to deny this bond. To adopy Michel Foucault's view that the homosexual did not exist "as a person" until this time is to reject a rich and terrible past.

Crompton is survived by his partner of 40 years, Luis Diaz-Perdomo.

Big Spook On Campus

Joe Beese — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:11:46 -0800

The 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act included funding for a pilot program that provided scholarships in exchange for recipients completing at least one summer internship in the intelligence agencies. The Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program (PRISP) was praised in National Review but criticized by humanities organizations as a threat to academic integrity. The 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act [400kb pdf] submitted to Congress by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair makes the program a permanent budget item. Program applicants are encouraged to use discretion before disclosing their interest in the Agency to friends and family.

Digital Research Tools PayDiRT

Rykey — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:45:01 -0800

Digital Research Tools (DiRT) is a wiki created by Lisa Spiro, director of Rice University's Digital Media Center. Tons of "snapshot reviews of software that can help researchers" are categorized by what you're trying to accomplish ("Analyze Statistics," "Network With Other Researchers," "Search Visually"), as well as by general topic ("Authoring," "Linguistic Tools," "Text Analysis"). Via

Liberal Arts 2.0

divabat — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:44:16 -0800

"What are the new liberal arts?", asks SnarkMarket, inspired by Jason Kottke's tagline and Edge. The blog post has turned into a pitch for a new collaborative book, with spirited discussions and over 100 suggestions including photography, design, relationships, mythology, intuitive thinking, synthesis, knowledge mastery, search, archiving, play, and home economics.

This is phenomenal.

painquale — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:19:36 -0800

Dave Chalmers has just launched PhilPapers, a directory of nearly 200,000 online papers in philosophy. This is a jawdropping and amazing resource for philosophical research. For evidence of the scope of this project and the care that has been given to it, see the taxonomy of philosophy that was developed for the site.

Would you like to buy an fuzzy multi-instanton knot?

escabeche — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:56:25 -0800

"...the best place to hide bulls**t is in a refereed journal that’s not open-access!" The math-physics blog n-category cafe digs into the curious case of M.S. El Naschie. El Naschie is editor-in-chief of the journal Chaos, Solitons, and Fractals, published by the well-respected scientific publisher Elsevier and sold to academic libraries for US$4,520 a year. The problem? El Naschie has published 322 of his own papers in the journal -- papers that John Baez (of "This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics" and "The Crackpot Index") describes as "vague, dreamlike imagery," "undisciplined numerology larded with impressive buzzwords," and "total baloney." Is El Naschie a reverse Sokal? Or a Markov process for producing random publishable papers? One thing's for sure -- he knows how to cure cancer.

Two mathematicians walk into a bar...

cthuljew — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:09:25 -0800

A math professor was explaining a particularly complicated calculus concept to his class when a frustrated pre-med student interrupts him. "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" the pre-med blurts out. The professor pauses, and answers matter-of-factly: "Because math saves lives." "How?" demanded the student. "How on Earth does calculus save lives?" "Because," replied the professor, "it keeps certain people out of medical school."

Randy Pausch dies at 47

brassafrax — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:48:19 -0800

Randy Pausch, who became famous for his "last lecture" after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, has died at 47. (previously) The last lecture video went viral in late 2007. Pausch became a minor celebrity and made a commencement address at Carnegie Mellon which also gained media attention. Homepage (currently being overwhelmed) and Wikipedia.

"Orientalism" and its Discontents

ibmcginty — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:38:53 -0800

Historian Robert Irwin reviews two books critical of Edward Said's Orientalism. Irwin's own critique received positive and mixed reviews. In this brief interview, Said explains what he was trying to do in Orientalism.

Revolt of the Lab Rats? Or Voyeur Caught Watching?

mmahaffie — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:28:51 -0800

When your research subjects notice you watching.... The fine folks over at Little Green Footballs discovered "a pile of results and code" from an observation of their on-line discourse on a server at Carnegie Mellon. That led to a heated thread of sometimes paranoid speculation that eventually calmed down (somewhat) when the researcher's academic advisors posted a good-natured mea-culpa (wea-culpa?) and explanation.

Getting It All Wrong: Bioculture critiques Cultural Critique

jason's_planet — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:26:57 -0800

Bioculture critiques Cultural Critique Until literature departments take into account that humans are not just cultural or textual phenomena but something more complex, English and related disciplines will continue to be the laughingstock of the academic world that they have been for years because of their obscurantist dogmatism and their coddled and preening pseudo-radicalism. Until they listen to searching criticism of their doctrine, rather than dismissing it as the language of the devil, literature will continue to be betrayed in academe, and academic literary departments will continue to lose students and to isolate themselves from the intellectual advances of our time.

The Lost Archive

IndigoJones — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:53:07 -0800

Ancient manuscripts lost and found, Nazis, academic backstabbing, religious fundamentalism - something for everyone in this story. (And count on Spengler for some controversial thoughts on what it all means)

Academic "Job Talk" advice

mattbucher — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:31:36 -0800

Advice on Academic Job Talk Visits by Siva Vaidhyanathan.

Choices, constraints, and the 'mommy track.'

waxbanks — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:34:20 -0800

Insightful, sociological, bitter: A scholar reflects back on her entry into the academic 'mommy track.' An interesting blend of meditation-on-resentment and just-plain-resentment, worth a read both intentionally and un-. [via] As the poster (olderwoman) points out in her first comment, the post nearly/neatly glosses over the fact that it's written from the perspective of a tenured academic. Her post - not quite an 'essay,' thanks - interests me for several reasons: it's emblematic of the limitations and bizarre literary blind spots of online confession/analysis by scholars; it doesn't flinch in describing the anger and (self-/hubby-)loathing baked into so many relationships, affluent and otherwise; it might be a deliciously reflexive demonstration of the nature of self-righteousness or a run-of-the-mill example of it, or something uneasily situated halfway between. I wouldn't actually call this 'best of the web' in aesthetic, scholarly, or confessional terms, but something about its ironies appeals to me. The scholarly blogosphere isn't well represented on MeFi, so there you go. Incidentally, if you have an eye for academic blogs in general, follow the 'via' link to Crooked Timber, one of the best academic group blogs for several years running. A bit predictable in its politics sometimes, but then isn't everyone?

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

xthlc — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 08:13:52 -0800

Randy Pausch is a pioneer in virtual reality, a computer science professor, a Disney Imagineer, an innovative teacher, and the co-founder of the best video game school in the world. One year ago he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and after a long and difficult fight he's been given just a few more months to live. This week he gave his powerful, funny, and life-affirming last lecture to a packed auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University, entitled "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams". The WSJ's summary, and a direct link to the complete video of the lecture (2 hours, and unfortunately streaming WMV). Warning: hilarious jokes about dying.

The set of all-things-not-doctoral-dissertations, as a logician might say, has a vast and varied membership. Ocean liners, the square root of minus one, and pickled herring spring to mind.

zorro astor — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:50:57 -0800

Amusing notes on the requirements for a doctoral thesis in theology at Fordham University This is actually from the Graduate Student Handbook.

Natalie Portman: Broadway, Silver Screen...Research Lab?

charmston — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:10:30 -0800

Turns out that Golden Globe-winning actress Natalie Portman (formerly known as Natalie Hershlag) is quite an accomplished scholar. In addition to being a Harvard psychology student, she worked in Dr. Abigail Baird's research lab and was the co-author of a peer-reviewed journal article investigating the neuroscience underlying the development of object permanence in infants. Quite impressive, in an age where Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons dominate the headlines.

Textbook textbook writing

meech — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 16:33:07 -0800

So you want to write a textbook? Take advice from N. Gregory Mankiw who got a $1.4m advance for his book on economics. Try some advice from Garrett Bauman who says no to originality or David A Rees who says the opposite. Maybe you just need a dose of reality from the bitter guy.

Professor Howard John Hall

rxrfrx — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:23:16 -0800

John Hall of the University of Florida delivers a praiseworthy lecture. Part One, Part Two.

Does it matter whether you think this is Best of the Web?

Gyan — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:49:20 -0800

Reviewing peer review.

"There's a game of water Quidditch going on in the swimming pool." Harry Potter, fandom, and academia.

anjamu — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 22:24:35 -0800

"... Everyone needs an escape. It just amazes me that for 1,200 people this involves sitting in darkened rooms listening to presentations on Harry Potter and the Sanctity of Everyday Life: JK Rowling's Complex Treatment of the Trope of Normalcy." Carole Cadwalladr covers Lumos 2006 for the Guardian. [via]

Sit down. Shut up.

jokeefe — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:51:59 -0800

Silence in class. "University professors denounced for anti-Americanism; schoolteachers suspended for their politics; students encouraged to report on their tutors. Are US campuses in the grip of a witch-hunt of progressives, or is academic life just too liberal?" From today's Guardian.