There’s this nice video from Prager U, from a young person explaining how she learned more at McDonald’s than at college. The key idea of the video is when she went to college, she was coddled and given the following advice from the college administrators: Ask for help when you need it Speak up when […] … learn more→

Do arts teachers have to be artists? It’s a question that is often raised when talking about our chosen profession across the dinner table. There is an expectation that if we teach the arts then we must be practising artists. It is a presumption that doesn’t seem to exist in other teaching paths. We do […] … learn more→

Perhaps the most abusive employment situation in higher education is in Colorado, where the food banks specialize in helping the severely underpaid faculty. Yes, things are tough all over, but the starving faculty there know the system is exploitative, because, well, let me recycle a quote: As I stood in a line at the county […] … learn more→

Although they look, talk and work just like any other undergraduate, they feel that they do not belong among “genuine” students. They feel the same as a well-dressed beggar might upon bluffing their way into the palace ball: an interloper waiting to be outed as lesser. Such students may be suffering from impostor syndrome – […] … learn more→

“The ocean is very wide,” says the American narrator of James Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room. “We have led different lives than you, things have happened to us there which have never happened here. Surely you can understand that this would make us a different people?” In return, his European interlocutor muses about “all the […] … learn more→

The headlines are screaming again about burkas. In the UK, a candidate for the leadership of the UK Independence Party wants to prohibit face veils in public. Terrorist attacks in Germany have spurred calls for a ban there, too. In France, seaside towns tried to ban “burkinis” and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who is […] … learn more→

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a popular revolt. Since May 2016 hundreds of activists – informal traders, unemployed young people and others – have hit the capital’s streets to protest against President Robert Mugabe’s government, which responded on Friday, September 2 by banning all demonstrations in the capital, Harare. The government seems unable to […] … learn more→

Q: Why did the woman cross the road? A: Who cares! What the hell is she doing out of the kitchen? Q: Why hasn’t NASA sent a woman to the moon? A: It doesn’t need cleaning yet! These two jokes represent disparagement humor – any attempt to amuse through the denigration of a social group […] … learn more→

A couple of weeks ago, the Guardian article “I’m a serious academic, not a professional instagrammer” caused a bit of a stir in my online community. The basic thrust of the piece was that those who engage in social media are just showing off. Tseen Khoo on the Research Whisperer correctly identified the humble bragging […] … learn more→

A brief post today, hopefully for better impact. “We need more women in mathematics, there aren’t enough.” –from a student; I’m not criticizing the student, they’re all trained to say this. Like so many false thoughts, the “need” for more women in mathematics has been ground into our heads since childhood. Don’t get me wrong, […] … learn more→