2013 was more eventful than other years. I won the Chancellor’s Award in Teaching Excellence, and then, I quit my job as a lecturer. My family moved to my home state of Florida. We bought a house. The Zombies Are Coming! was published in July (Listen to me talk zombies with Carol Howard Merritt and Derrick […]
2013: Year in Review Read More
Yesterday, Religion Dispatches posted my piece on Elf on the Shelf as a prelude to surveillance culture. Here’s an excerpt: “I need to be good because of the elf that lives my room,” my five-year old explained. “The what? Who lives where?” I ask. “The elf that knows if I’m bad or good,” she replies.
This post originally appeared at Chronicle Vitae on December 11th. When I decided to take a year away from academia, one of my goals was to avoid the job market. For six years, fall was a time of anticipation and dread as I waited to see what jobs would be available. How many jobs this
How to (Not) Avoid the Job Market Read More
In May, I quit my job and moved to Florida. Both decisions might seem big (they were), but they were remarkably easy. My lecturer gig paid little, the teaching load was heavy, and my department was dysfunctional. Leaving behind students, friends, and colleagues was hard. Watching my daughter mourn the loss of her friends was
This post is inspired by Rebecca Schuman’s post from a couple days ago. Go read it now. Also, check out the #NotARealAcademic on Twitter to see what other folks are saying. A few years ago, I was at a graduate conference presenting on a panel on post-graduate life. I was the “part-time” panelist, the one
Not a “real” academic Read More
“How do we know they are coming?”–Karin Lane (Mireille Enos) “They’re coming.”–Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), World War Z Zombies are everywhere. Brad Pitt battles them in the film adaptation of World War Z. AMC’s The Walking Dead follows human survivors in a post-apocalyptic zombified world. You can download Plants vs. Zombies for your smart phones, or be chased by these monsters for
The Zombies Are Coming! Read More