It is a question that not only high school graduates ask themselves when they have to choose their future: Are you from science or literature? it is also heard in many professional fields. The short answer would be that some strive to explain physical and natural phenomena and others to understand what human beings do. Both are ways […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Science or Literature: What’s the Difference?
The problem with gap talk
Gap talk. You know, the “this research fills a gap in the literature” line. Most of us have made this statement at some point in our academic life. It’s the most common starter for journal papers, proposals and theses, according to genre researchers. They’ve identified three moves in the game of what they call CARS, Create a […] … learn more→
With support for Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad becomes just one of several deans to tweet themselves into trouble
For acclaimed actor Phylicia Rashad, July 1, 2021 was the official first day on the job as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. But some hoped it would also be her last. The day before, Rashad had sent out a controversial Tweet in support of her onetime “TV husband,” Bill Cosby, after a court overturned his […] … learn more→
If not in a university, then where? Academia must define harm to allow open debate on difficult issues
In recent years, Australian academics have been accused of many forms of wrongful expression including racism, transphobia and anti-Semitism. Earlier this year an African-Australian researcher’s paper was accused of being racist. The research found the over-representation in crime statistics of Sudanese-born young people is not due to racial profiling. More recently a queer political action group […] … learn more→
Racism lurks behind decisions to deny Black high school students from being recognized as the top in their class
Two Black students – Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple – were named valedictorian and salutatorian at West Point High School in Mississippi in 2021. Shortly afterward, two white parents questioned whether school officials had correctly calculated the top academic honors. Ultimately, the school superintendent named two white students as “co-valedictorian” and “co-salutatorian” on the day of graduation. High […] … learn more→
Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana sent a letter to fellow Republicans on June 24, 2021, stating: “As Republicans, we reject the racial essentialism that critical race theory teaches … that our institutions are racist and need to be destroyed from the ground up.” Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor and central figure in the development of critical […] … learn more→
Academic freedom is paramount for universities. They can do more to protect it from China’s interference
A report from Human Rights Watch released yesterday found students and academics critical of China’s Communist Party are being harassed and intimidated by supporters of Beijing. Human Rights Watch interviewed 24 pro-democracy students from mainland China and Hong Kong, and 22 academics at Australian universities. In three verified cases, families of students in Australia who lived in […] … learn more→
How to get into further education as an adult
There are all kinds of reasons why you might not have pursued further education as a young adult. Maybe you needed to get a job fast in order to earn money, or perhaps it just wasn’t the right direction for your life at the time. Whatever your reason, you might think that the path of […] … learn more→
College can still be rigorous without a lot of homework
How hard should it be to earn a college degree? When the book “Academically Adrift” appeared in 2011, it generated widespread concern that college was not effectively educating students and preparing them for today’s world. Among other things, authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa claimed that most colleges were not rigorous or demanding, in part because college […] … learn more→
University rankings: geopolitical issues underestimated ed?
The world of higher education and research is now punctuated by seasonal announcements of the results of “rankings”. Since 2003, when the first ranking of world universities was published by a research team from the Chinese Jiaotong University in Shanghai, meetings have multiplied. Alongside the generalist rankings established annually by the British press group Times Higher Education (since […] … learn more→
