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Friday Trumpery: The Murder-Suicide of Expertise  

by meep

I have an entire series of posts on the irrelevancy of "experts" in all sorts of things, but mainly with regards to public policy. Let's take a look at a movie expert who doesn't know movies, dietary advice that's all over the place, and a nature expert concerned that birds can't fly over walls.

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English Grad Students and Adjuncts: If You Don't Have Options, You Have No Leverage  

by meep

One of those ‘Dear Lord, not this shit again:’

Wisconsin Grad Students Want Pay Parity Across Disciplines

y Vimal Patel DECEMBER 06, 2015

When one of America’s first graduate-student unions was recognized at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, in 1969, organizers embraced a key principle: Graduate assistants should get equal...

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Save the Humanities: Don't Let People Get Cheap Credit!  

by meep

That’s what this guy claims at any rate:

The crisis of the humanities undoubtedly has many causes. It is, indeed, a market crisis, but not one of our own making, nor is it one we humanists can solve by offering newer, sexier courses, or even by promising free doughnuts to...

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What Should be Taught - Part 2: Reactions to Japan Humanities Ban  

by meep

I have been collecting reactions to the Japanese Humanities Downsizing/Ban/Whatever.

I just saw this in a Cracked list:

So I guess that means it’s time to post what I’ve got.

First, I made my own post on LinkedIn:

Now, I’m a STEM person myself, with undergraduate degrees in math and...

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What Should be Taught - Part 1: Japan Bans the Humanities?  

by meep

Well, this story about Japanese universities being asked to slash their humanities & social sciences departments was a bit of a surprise:

Alarm Over Huge Cuts to Humanities and Social Sciences at Japanese Universities

The cuts, at the Education Ministry’s request, have caused profound concern among academics

More than two dozen...

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My Vocation: figure stuff out and tell other people  

by meep

I’ve been reading stuff on medium.com — I originally got there reading pieces from @munilass (Kristi Culpepper).

As a result, I get an email digest of stories, and I’m sure it’s following me, serving up the types of posts I’m more interested in and less of what I’m not. Or...

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Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Womens Studies Majors  

by meep

I saw a reference to the following paragraph from Jim Taranto:

Megan Brabec, 24, graduated from college a couple of years ago. She double-majored in political science and international affairs, and she minored in women’s studies and Spanish.

But even with those concentrations, it’s been hard to find a full-time gig.

This...

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National Adjunct Walkout Day: Time to Rethink Careers  

by meep

To wit: to be an adjunct is not a career. It’s a part-time job. If that part-time job is getting in the way of your goals, then TRY TO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

I am an adjunct at UConn. I just got this email:

2015 National Adjunct Walkout Day

National...

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My Fellow Adjuncts! You Have Only Your Chains to Lose!  

by meep

It’s between semesters, which is, I guess, why we’re seeing stuff like this:

wave of union organizing at college campuses across California and the nation in recent months is being fueled by part-time faculty who are increasingly discontented over working conditions and a lack of job security.

At nearly a dozen...

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Teaching Your Kids Math (for free)  

by meep

Having seen a lot of agita over acquaintances’ children’s math homework, I thought I would come bring help.

No, I am not going to say anything specific about Common Core. The issue of making arithmetic and basic math way too cognitively complicated for students (as well as the elementary school...

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