I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~attributed to Etienne de Grellet~
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
You probably don’t write on an ancient typewriter, like the one in the picture above. Whatever works for you is great–but if you want to put some money on it, it’s even better. For the past few weeks, writers participating in the Any Good Thing Writing Challenge have been pumping out words–400 x 5 days per... Continue Reading →
I can't stop thinking about Deserae Turner. Like, all night long some nights, for several weeks now. In February, Turner, 14, was lured into an isolated location near Logan, Utah, by two 16 year old boys and shot in the head. They'd talked about slitting her throat but "could not go through with it," so... Continue Reading →
A positive follow up to a post I wrote several weeks ago ("Banning Books, Closing Hearts, Killing Kids") about anti-LGBT laws in Utah's schools: This session, the state legislature of Utah voted to repeal its "Don't Say 'Gay'" law, which prevented public school teachers from doing anything that could be construed as "promoting" homosexuality at... Continue Reading →
You probably don’t write on an ancient typewriter, like the one in the picture above. Whatever works for you is great–but if you want to put some money on it, it’s even better. For the past few weeks, writers participating in the Any Good Thing Writing Challenge have been pumping out words–400 x 5 days per... Continue Reading →
Rebecca Barrett-Fox 