Jaron Lanier’s new book came out last week, and if the reviews online are any indication, I may be the only person on the planet who actually READ the damn thing from cover to cover.
The Globe and Mail reviewer certainly didn’t. Slate, Salon… academic blogs… you name it. It’s extremely easy to write a review if you only skim the first few pages. Reading is hard. Read More
Yes, yes… it’s been a veeery long time since I’ve posted anything here.
Well, instead of simply writing about WHY I haven’t posted (major health issues, holidays, and an insane teaching load this semester), I’ll just dive right into the post-Oscar media frenzy. Read More
Not dead, just resting.
I’ve been ignoring this site for the past several weeks, as I’ve been rather busy putting my entire life into boxes, moving those boxes, and then unpacking them in a new place. I am now a proud resident of East Vancouver, mere footsteps from the best pho in town. Life is good. (If you are someone who would need to know my mailing address and I have not already sent it to you, this would be an excellent time to email me, wouldn’t it?)
Now it’s back to work, as multiple deadlines are fast approaching for the next round of conferences. After being shot down by the monkeys at AERA (blind review? More like pig-ignorant review…) I’m hoping to make several appearances at Congress this year. For those of you thinking of attending this year, it’s in Victoria, which is quite lovely and not all that far from Vancouver… just saying…
A couple of quick updates on the academic part of my life, as that is the purpose of this blog…
Thought I’d share this here, as it’s something I’ve been involved with for a little while now…
For those interested in ‘scene’ as a research tool:
Call for Papers
Scene Again: Social Life, Research, and Cultural Studies – Special Issue intended for Cultural Studies Read More
It occurs to me that I still have a blog, and that I haven’t posted anything in weeks…
I thought about a ‘Lance Armstrong is Innocent’ post, but decided at the last minute NOT to share the inane ramblings I typed up in the wee hours of the morning…
Perhaps a “Republicans are all BLAH, but Democrats are all BLEH” post… but anyone who follows me on Twitter (god help you) knows how little I care about party conventions. (Can we at least agree that you don’t NEED to frame comments about Clint Eastwood with terms like ‘great’ or ‘legend’? He’s old. That, in and of itself, doesn’t translate to ‘greatness’. He squinted his way through one-dimensional character performances for 40 years. That’s it. He’s also an ignorant asshole with no relevance to contemporary politics whatsoever…)
So I thought I’d put up a quick post to share some of the latest work I’ve been doing. (That kinda was the ‘point’ of this website in the first place… as my colleague has reminded me after some recent ‘tangential’ posts…) Read More
Not dead, I swear. Just swamped with end-of-term business, such as 100+ essays and exams.
Will take time next week to write a proper post. But for now, I just want to mention the fantastic dissertation defense I attended on Monday morning.
Ladies and Gentlemen, DOCTOR Benjamin goddam Woo.
Good friend, colleague/collaborator, partner in crime-fighting. Not to mention a rather intimidating scholar.
Look for info on his book (coming soon) on this site.
Read the man’s website. He’s a doctor, so he knows what he’s talking about.
I could continue yelling at friends and family about this, or I could attempt to put a few semi-coherent sentences together here and maybe maintain a few healthy relationships in my life…
Here’s what I know: premiers Clark and Redford are, equally and unquestionably, total muppets. I’m sure they’re lovely dinner guests, and responsible neighbours, and respectful children/parents/siblings. But politically, ideologically? Muppets. One is the lesser of two evils, the other is the more popular (for now) of two awful legacies. Ignore their party names – they are, in many important ways, the same.
Progressive conservatives. Compassionate conservatives. Cool new conservatives for a cool new world.
We don’t cancel important social programs… we just cut their budgets each year, under the guise of ‘fiscal responsibility’. We think families and churches and communities are just awesome, and we’d love to support them… but ultimately you’re on your own, so better start hiding money under your mattress, chump. We are nothing like the Harper government, so don’t ever confuse us with that potential train wreck… even though our parties enact identical legislation and we share their economic and social worldview and we often employ the same people behind the scenes…
So when Clark and Redford start fighting about the Enbridge pipeline, it’s really hard to ‘take sides’. If I suffer from both cancer and ebola, do I really care which one ‘wins’? Read More
As some of you know, I currently work for a college that shall not be named here.
(No, I’m not going to talk trash about my employer here. That’s not cool.)
But my STUDENTS on the other hand… Oh man, do I have stories to tell…
No. Seriously. Let’s talk teaching for a moment, shall we?
Spending my day in a library, surrounded by various notes and books I’ve collected over the past few years, trying to better articulate my own uses of ‘genealogy’ in my research.
I’m hoping to post some detailed thoughts on this subject later in the week.
But for now, I stumbled across this lovely bit of writing and fell right back in love with it. Just wanted to share…
This is a brief statement made by Michel Foucault in June of 1984, published in Liberation. Enjoy. Read More
Two posts in one day? Has he gone mad?
Here is a second paper that I presented in Kitchener-Waterloo last week. This one summarizes three empirical case studies and the methodological strands connecting them. I co-authored this paper with two colleagues, and I would encourage you to check out their work when you can.
Hopefully, there will be more work from this ongoing collaboration to post soon.
(Note: these are edited/modified versions of the papers presented at Congress 2012 in Kitchener-Waterloo. For full versions with reference lists, please feel free to contact me. Some content has been reserved for future publications.) Read More