Published at Chronicle Vitae on February 26, 2015. I feel squeamish about the label of brilliance. The juxtaposition of bossy and brilliant sets my teeth on edge. Maybe, that is because I’m unsure that I’ve ever been called brilliant as a student, researcher, or as a teacher. (Nor did I necessarily expect to be.) I’m […]
Published at Chronicle Vitae on March 10, 2015. I pushed food around on my plate as I listened to the speech. In a particularly candid moment, the vice provost noted that we, the NTT faculty, were the future of higher education because all faculty would eventually be off track. Tenure was on the way out. At […]
Published at Chronicle Vitae on March 26, 2015. Activism appears to have merit when it can be neatly attached to one’s scholarship or a vision of a shared politics. Since most of my work is on religious hate groups, my scholarship didn’t always neatly align with the expectations of departments and search committees. There seemed […]
Published at Human Parts on March 31, 2015. For me, these books were beautiful escapism. They permitted me to step away from the constant shuffle of life as a divorced kid. My week parceled out between my mother and father. I moved back and forth between two families. Tuesday, Friday, and every other weekend was […]
Published on Chronicle Vitae on April 24, 2015. When critics lament the adjunctification of higher education, gender and race are not necessarily at the forefront of the discussion. While contingent labor is clearly a problem for academia, it is not a problem that affects everyone equally. What does it mean for departments, institutions, and academic disciplines […]
Published at Killing the Buddha on March 25, 2015. As a child, I found these films comforting: a lesson that family might wound and harm you, but you could escape and find happiness elsewhere. I learned that you just had to bide your time. That you wouldn’t be a child forever. That escape was always possible […]