University of Venus
GenX Women in Higher Ed, Writing from Across the Globe
November 9, 2010 - 9:00pm
Having recently acquired my own iPod touch, I finally found a reason to do some serious weeding of my address book. I realized that I have active mobile phone numbers of 4 army generals and numerous colonels, majors and lieutenants. Some years back, I have included notations on the units where they belong and their station to better manage this growing data. The notations have become more diverse-- J3, OG7, engineering, CRS, RCDG, EastMinCom-- indicating the many types of soldiers I have encountered in the course of my research career.
November 7, 2010 - 9:15pm
Those first days of teaching were disastrous, but I didn’t know it.I started out teaching at a community college right after finishing my master’s degree in journalism. Entrusted with the campus’s only two sections of the introductory Mass Communication class and given little guidance about how or what to teach, I was thrilled to find ready-made PowerPoint slides from the publisher included with the textbook.
November 4, 2010 - 9:30pm
It was two weeks ago, Monday. I knew the deadline for my next post at UVenus was coming up. I thought I would write about the office space and how we academics have our own ways of designing and decorating our offices. I was moving my office on the same day so it felt all the more relevant. I did not have to look for any other topic; spontaneously, simultaneously with what was going on in my life, I would write my piece during the week. However, something changed my plan of writing about this topic that seemed to come naturally…
November 2, 2010 - 9:30pm
Anyone in the academy already knows that if a letter of recommendation praises a student as a ‘hard worker,’ the subtext reads, ‘not very bright.’ High prestige scholarships put a high premium on leadership and service to others, but at some point in the transition from Gen X to Gen Y, service fell to a distant second place. Every student I meet seems to have attended some sort of leadership seminar, institute, or retreat and leads something. Most have founded an NGO. Scholarship administrators fume that while many have founded, few have achieved much of anything.
October 31, 2010 - 9:45pm
Teaching is at the heart of what I do in the humanities, both in my self-conception as “teacher-scholar” and in my affiliation with my institution—a small regional private university that prides itself on its individualized engagement with student learning. Bringing my research into the classroom where it might supplement the pedagogical experience of my students helps me to model the life of the mind to which I am committed. It allows my students to see that the humanities are a living thing, constantly changing and demanding we confront new challenges to our habits of thought.
October 28, 2010 - 9:00pm
International academic events are always a good laboratory to observe not only the various schools of thought, national educational orientations and current trends, but also opportunities to think about about language and understanding. Not less importantly, they represent occasions to think about the need for permanent education, independently of our sometimes impressive academic degrees and professional performances.
October 26, 2010 - 7:45pm
I knew this moment would come. The moment when I would begin paying back my student loans, marking the end of my ability to consider myself a student, despite the collection of .edu email addresses which are still active.
October 24, 2010 - 9:00pm
As I write this, my husband and I are currently spending quality time together; I am writing this blog post while he works away on a report mandated by the university, his third this week. We are stealing this time “together” after he had to run back to work for a four hour meeting at 4:30 in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I went for a walk with my kids, read them stories, and then went through my Twitter feed.
October 21, 2010 - 10:20pm
I am not the kind of person who feels uncomfortable about confrontations. I don’t go looking for them, but I don’t shrink from them either. When students inappropriately challenge me in class I usually deal with them without too much of a hassle. Yes, I feel annoyed when it happens. And my first thought usually is, would he (it is most often a male student) be doing this or saying this if I were a white man? But then things settle down and I can almost forget that I am a young female faculty of color. Almost.
October 19, 2010 - 9:45pm
I met with my soon-to-be advisor last winter to talk about my Master’s application and the possibility of working together. After discussing our common interests, she gave me a list of publications that I might be interested in reviewing, including “At Home with Pornography” and “Mighty Lewd Books.” A couple of months later I asked my parents to pick up a couple of these titles for me as birthday gifts, not pausing to consider that what has become the norm for me, might be somewhat shocking to them.