George Ciccariello-Maher, associate professor of politics and global studies at Drexel University, has resigned his tenured position. In an announcement on Twitter posted today, Ciccariello-Maher wrote, “after nearly a year of harassment by right-wing, white supremacist media outlets and internet mobs, after death threats and threats of violence directed against me and my family, my situation has […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
George Ciccariello-Maher Resigns: “We are all a single outrage campaign away from having no rights at all.”
How hatred of whites takes over a campus
Many (not most) campuses are hotbeds of racial hatred, hatred of white people and white culture in particular. It used to be weird demonstrations of hatred of white people (eg, “Whites Are An Abomination”) were a “once a year” thing…then every six months. Today, hardly a week goes by without some idiocy slouching out from […] … learn more→
Open access in Germany: the best DEAL is no deal
In the worldwide campaign to shift academic publishing to open access, the Germans are fighting a major battle. To many, they look like heroes. “Projekt DEAL” is the name of a German national consortium that includes university libraries and scientific organisations. The consortium has been working towards an agreement with Elsevier that, if the Germans […] … learn more→
Why we need to rethink supplementary examinations
In Australian schools, assessment drives learning. If there’s one thing that preoccupies students during the examination period, it’s the fear of failure and having to resit the dreaded supplementary examination. What is a supplementary exam? A supplementary exam is a form of further assessment offered to students who have not satisfied the passing criteria set […] … learn more→
Students cop the blame for pushing locals out of university towns – but it’s not their fault
The small Scottish town of St Andrews is home to one of the UK’s oldest and most highly regarded universities. The University of St Andrews has grown very rapidly in recent years, witnessing a threefold expansion in student numbers between 2002 and 2017. Today, there are 9,000 full-time students matriculated in a town with a […] … learn more→
Education Department’s borrower defense relief: Days late and dollars short
Thursday the Department of Education made an announcement about the nearly 100,000 borrowers who have been waiting at least a year for the Department to consider their borrower defense to repayment claims: A whopping 21,000 or so of them will finally get an answer. In total, the Department officially approved 12,900 claims for former Corinthian Colleges students, […] … learn more→
Rage against the academic publishing machine does not have to be futile
The “unstoppable machine”. That is how Yiannis Gabriel, one of the UK’s leading social thinkers, labelled the academic-publishing complex in a recent piece for Times Higher Education (“We must rescue social science research from obscurity”, Opinion, August 10). His ire was directed, in particular, at social science research, which he sees as falling into aimless, […] … learn more→
Every Campus race hoax is a success
I can’t emphasize strongly enough how our campuses are being mismanaged. Yes, many administrators have (bogus) Ph.D.’s in Leadership and Vision, but those degrees really don’t represent any actual knowledge of how to run a campus. One of the weird thing about the many hate crimes on campus is how often they are hoaxes. Nearly […] … learn more→
The viva and the supervisor
Last week I reached thirty two. Thirty two doctoral researchers who successfully defended their research. Thirty two Doctors let loose on the world. And two things are now on my mind. Not thirty two. Just two. The first thing I’m thinking about is how heavily the viva weighs on me as a supervisor – not nearly as […] … learn more→
How the alt-right seeks to sabotage the University
There is a great deal to be said about the rise of the Alt-Right over this past year, and while I understand the argument for identifying its platform with the ascent of white supremacism, I’d argue that “Alt-Right” encompasses something far more ambitious and dangerous, especially with respect to the country’s most vital institutions: free […] … learn more→
