Sep

30

Milestones

Category: "quality" and other fighting words, intellectuals are workers, this blogging life, youth is a category through which class is lived | 5 Comments

Emile had a visit with his physician upon our return from Quebec, and at 7 1/2 months, he was up 11 pounds and 11 inches. The eleven inches part is kind of scary when you think about it–1.5 inches a month!
He also has 3 teeth, nearly 4, and pre-verbalizes, we would like to believe, […]

Sep

25

Laissez-Faire Bingo

Category: "job market theory" and why it's silly, academic labor system, faculty on food stamps, feminization of the humanities, gender, intellectuals are workers, solidarity and a tiered workforce | Leave a Comment

“It seems that anyone who attempts to have a frank discussion about labor and/or capitalism finds themselves staving off the same arguments again and again.”–The Girl Detective @ Alas, a Blog

All year long over at the Chronicle’s Brainstorm, I’ve been grappling with market fundamentalists (Why doncha go where the Market will pay ya! My […]

Sep

14

The Ritalin Generation

Category: Precarity, academic freedom, administrators, corporate university, higher ed in the news, undergraduate labor, youth is a category through which class is lived | 3 Comments

“There’s no way I could have kept my scholarship if I didn’t use it.”  
I’m working on a piece about undergraduate academic freedom that relates changes in campus culture to changes in the culture of schools. One area of particular interest is the medicalization of youth relations with authority. In a previous section, I discussed […]

Sep

12

Oppositional and Defiant–Or Critical Thinker?

Category: academic freedom, administrators, corporate university, david horowitz and ABOR legislation, disciplines, youth is a category through which class is lived | Leave a Comment

An epidemic of compliance in higher ed helps turn parents and schoolteachers into corrections officers.
I’m working on a piece about undergraduate academic freedom that relates changes in campus culture to changes in the culture of schools. One area of particular interest is the medicalization of youth relations with authority. AlterNet’s Bruce Levine, a clinical […]

Sep

5

22,000 Member CUNY Union Ratifies Contract

Category: academic labor system, graduate education, intellectuals are workers, solidarity and a tiered workforce | Leave a Comment

Earlier in the summer, I noted some opposition by CUNY faculty serving contingently to the contract proposed by the leadership–a group of folks including Stanley Aronowitz, Barbara Bowen, Marcia Newfield, and others that I regard as friends and mentors: these are the people that brought me into the movement. At the time, they were the […]

Sep

5

Carnegie Mellon Stiffs the Humanities

Category: administrators, corporate university, feminization of the humanities | 1 Comment

As previously reported in this column, this could be the end for _minnesota review_.
Editor Jeffrey Williams released this announcement earlier in the week:
The _minnesota review_ is seeking a new editor and a new institutional home. Please send queries and proposals to Jeffrey J. Williams, at
jwill@andrew.cmu.edu or Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213, by […]

Sep

2

Faculty Serving Contingently “Take Long Course in Poverty”

Category: "job market theory" and why it's silly, "quality" and other fighting words, Precarity, academic labor system, administrators, feminization of the humanities, gender, graduate education, health care for all faculty, intellectuals are workers, proletarian thought, the videos | 3 Comments

In honor of Labor Day, very interesting posts by Brainstorm comrades Bauerlein (part one and part two) and Barreca. The posts and ensuing conversations are very much worth a look.
Above, Part 2 of my interview with Melanie Hubbard, a Columbia Ph.D. with articles, an NEH fellowship, and a book contract, who has never been interviewed […]