SAVE THE DATE: Oct. 19-21, 2017 Engaging with Communities for Justice 4th International Conference on Hate Studies 3rd floor, Hemmingson Center, Gonzaga University Spokane, Washington Presenter submission deadline: May 30, 2017 (Click here for submission form) Early attendee registration deadline: September 15, 2017 (Click here for registration form) This conference is one of the leading interdisciplinary academic... Continue Reading →
The Benefits of Guns on Campus
Though the overwhelming majority of postsecondary educators don’t want guns on their campuses and most states, in keeping with centuries’ old wisdom, have refused to expand guns to their campuses, two more states are set to bring firearms to higher ed. Arkansas and Kansas are joining Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin... Continue Reading →
_God Hates_ Reviewed in _Kansas History_
Thanks to Kansas History for reviewing God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right in its most recent issue. From the review: The heart of the book is devoted to positioning the WBC on the antigay religious spectrum. Barrett-Fox cites potent antigay quotes from leaders of the Religious Right that are nearly identical to rhetoric from... Continue Reading →
Why _I_ Teach Online
If you are skeptical about the ways that online learning is an act of social justice, check out Devooney Looser's recent piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Why I Teach Online." She focuses on the way that women, in particular, benefit from online courses, which can be as (or more) rigorous and engaging as in-person... Continue Reading →
How Much of Your College Costs Pay the People Teaching You?
Adjunct educators at Youngstown University in Ohio recently "celebrated" a special occasion: 25 years without a raise. That means that they've had the same exact pay since before many of their students were born--potentially, in fact, before some of them were born. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average cost of a year... Continue Reading →
_God Hates_ Reviewed in the American Journal of Sociology
Thanks to the American Journal of Sociology and reviewer Bernadette Barton of Morehead State University for reviewing God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right this month. I love both Pray the Gay Away: The Secret Lives of Bible Belt Gays and Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers (which is on my soc of sex syllabus for the summer!),... Continue Reading →
2017 Lincoln Ideas Forum: Hate of the Nation
Measuring Hate by its Consequences: Love and Hate in Westboro Baptist Church Pickets Only in the most extreme cases do people see themselves as hateful. Most of the time, they see themselves as loving. This is as true for Westboro Baptists, the most (in)famous anti-gay church in the US, as well as more violent extremists,... Continue Reading →
The Cost of Enrollment: Why KAIT Needs to Tell Rape Apologists to Shut Up
CONTENT ALERT: rape, news coverage of rape, rape apologists KAIT is the local news station in Northeast Arkansas, serving the Jonesboro region, where Arkansas State University is located. This week, the station posted a story on its Facebook page about the fourth rape reported on campus this year. In the unmoderated comments, a jerk--let's just call... Continue Reading →
Hallways too Quiet? Try Filling Offices with Tenured Faculty.
A few weeks ago, Deborah K. Fitzgerald, a former dean and current faculty member at MIT, wrote a nuanced piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education mourning the apparent end of noisy academic hallways--places where colleagues would meet, chat, generate new ideas, and sometimes snub each other over slights so small they can only be seen with... Continue Reading →