Research, Academia & Education

There are those lessons you learn from facing the fire and walking through it. Those things that you read and know will change the way you think about your life. This list is definitely an outpouring of the former, whether it will serve as the latter for you remains to be seen. So What Did We Wish Someone Had Told Us When We Started Graduate School?*This is partly the advice we would give ourselves if we could go back to day one, an encouragement to those of us still engaged in doctoral and masters coursework, theses, and dissertations, and a chance to express the best of what we know to those thinking about embarking on a PhD or MA program.  Read more >

I should probably accept that corporate and deeply entrenched political interests would not allow a comprehensive health care system to gain traction in the United States. Yet I can’t let go. One of the things that hurt me deeply is the lack of civil public discourse. It could have been different. Come with me to the set of the imaginary Vixen News Network as Becky Glenne shows us how it could have been possible for pundits to peacefully share differing opinions on health care reform.  Read more >

Most U.S. school officials and teachers warn students about the dangers of sharing too much information online and teach young people ways to maintain relative privacy while connected to the Internet.  In Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District, however, school officials allegedly took another approach: they surveilled students and their families by using the webcams built into laptops issued to students by their high schools.  Read more >

There is so much to say about Amy Bishop shooting six of her fellow faculty members during a meeting last week, killing three of them. (If you're not familiar with the incident, the National Public Radio news blog has a good summary, including information from from a faculty member present at the meeting.) Indeed, much has already been said about the incident--and most of what's been said is just plain asinine.  Read more >

Living and working in a foreign country is an amazing and thrilling thing, but it does not come without its headaches. For many British expats who are living in Europe for the benefit of constant sunshine and ripe fruit, this is not news to them – their incomes are at the mercy of continually shifting exchange rates. This week the European currency took a hit because of the global recession and the international market’s recognition that lots of debt is not a good thing: the nation of Greece is in a bad way. So what’s the big deal?  Read more >