Category Archives: academia

so, yes, i’m kind of manic

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I’m working on a lot of things at one time, and the stress is at just about the right level. Too much stress: bad. Too little stress: arguably bad, too. I think my low-grade mania is the result of this stress. Either that or all the allergy medicine I’m taking. Not even counting the personal stuff, here’s what’s going on:

  • I’ve organized my ASECS panel, so that’s done, but I’m hoping to put another one together, which will be chaired by someone other than me.
  • I found myself a roommate for ASECS so the hotel costs will be half what they would ordinarily be. I need to go ahead and make the reservations just to get that task out of the way (or maybe that’s the allergy medicine talking).
  • For the first time ever, I’ve been invited to give a talk. Actually, two of them.
  • I’ve been asked to submit a paper to a special journal issue on Charles Wesley.
  • I need to get cracking on editing a special issue of another journal on the eighteenth-century English sermon.
  • I considered, then turned down, a request to organize next year’s meeting of MWASECS. I just can’t afford to take that kind of time until after I have tenure.
  • About a half-dozen proposals and/or applications are due in the next two weeks. Stuff I’m excited about. Stuff I don’t want to screw up. Stuff that will take me to England next year and/or buy me a semester or two away from teaching so that I can work on the book.
  • I’m revising an article for a journal. I’m late. That’s okay, right? I mean, turning in a revised article beyond the deadline is not a fatal flaw, is it?
  • I need to finish my book proposal and circulate it among potential publishers.
  • Classes are going well (I’m very happy with both of them), but I have a stack of grading I need to take care of.
  • I have two students doing independent study with me this semester, and I really need to engage with them more actively than I have so far.
  • I’m also involved in the UMKC Honors Program as their first faculty fellow, and that taking a lot of ideas out for a spin to see how they handle. Hopefully I won’t crash.

Here’s what I need from you: What advice do those of you who have had some success at academic grant writing have for me? And are any of you willing to read over something I write and give me your feedback?

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the fate of script in an age of print

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The SHARP panel at ASECS 2005 (my original CFP here):
Chair: George Williams
Panelists

Giles Bergel (Queen Mary, University of London), “Shifting the boundaries of ‘the shift from script to print’: the case of engraved lettering.”
Katherine Ellison (Emory University), “Tracing the Way of an Eagle in the Ayre: Script and Print in Seventeenth-Century Cryptography Manuals”
Betty Schellenberg (Simon Fraser University), “Vicarious Reading, Manuscript Culture, and Johnsonís The Rambler”
Rory Wallace (Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design), “Wish You Were Here”

I received enough good proposals for a second panel on the topic, and I’ve asked the conference organizers if they could accommodate an additional panel. I’ll keep you posted…

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here’s the panel i’ll be on…

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…at ASECS 2005:

Panel Title:ÝÝ Between Anachronism and Antiquarianism: 18th-Century
Experiences and 21st-Century Interpretations
Chair:Ý Jeffrey S. Ravel, MIT
Paper 1: Kevin Berland, Pennsylvania State University , “The Author vs. the Archive: Historiographical Problems in William Byrd’s Dividing Line Histories”
Paper 2: Carol Martin, Texas State University-San Marcos , “From Fascinated Gaze to Fetishistic Construction: A Reading of Antiquarianism and Anachronism in the Context of 18th Century Studies”
Paper 3: Downing Thomas, University of Iowa , “Staging Early French Opera”
Paper 4: George H. Williams, University of Missouri-Kansas City , “Rewriting Religious History: the Case of Methodism”

I’m still putting waiting to hear from those I’ve accepted for the panel I’m chairing, so I can’t post those titles yet, but it looks like it’s going to have some great papers. Info to come later.

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academic freedom

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Pink Bunny of Battle: “The War on Academic Freedom.”

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at war. I’m not referring to the war on terrorism. I’m referring to the no-holds-barred, scorched-earth war that extremist right-wing Republicans are waging to transform every aspect of our society so that it conforms to their ideology. In higher education, they’ve got academic freedom in their sights. And they’ve just about killed it. Read on, and you’ll see what I mean.

This is relevant to my (still largely embryonic) “How an English Department Works” category.

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new kids on the block

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“When the devil came, he was not red. He was chrome, and he said, Come with me.” – Wilco, “Hell is Chrome” [listen online]

Wow. While I wasn’t paying attention, a bunch of new academic blogs sprang up over the summer months:

  • This Academic Life: “Academia als Beruf,” or, an occasional record of the various aspects of my life as an academic.
  • Bitch Ph.D.
  • The Chronicles of Dr. Crazy: Thinking for a living is serious business.
  • The Cul de Sac: Living the Burbs, Where the Margin is the Center The Center, the Margin and Everyone wants to live on a road going nowhere.
  • Professor Dyke: A Writer and Professor Talks Smack About Writing, Publishing, Teaching, Misadventures on the Tenure Track, and the Perils of Being the Only Single, Non-Student Dyke in Smalltown-Collegeville
  • Eudaemonia’s Horizon: A light-hearted romp through life, love & philosophy at the bottom of the atmosphere…
  • In Favor of Thinking: life in academia, yoga, movies, books, ideas, general rants …
  • Just Tenured: A recently tenured associate professor at Little-Known U rediscovers life in academia and beyond. Is there light at the end of the tenure-tunnel? Where am I going and what am I doing?
  • New Kid on the Hallway: Negotiating a new job and a long distance marriage, while trying to avoid the bullies and hang out with the cool kids on the academic playground.
  • No Fancy Name: No fancy description. I’m really quite boring, not creative at all. I also can’t match my socks.
  • Playing School, Irreverently: Whee! Adventures on the tenure track … and beyond.
    All aboard!

I’m not caffeinated enough to have anything to say about all this, yet, but you might find interesting the recent (and perhaps unfinished) conversation about identity and blogging. As Chuck speculates, maybe this time of year encourages such reflections.

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