21st Century Scholar

The Thrusday Pop This fall, I am teaching about 45 first-year graduate students. When I look back on the first 14 weeks of the semester, I am struck by how stressed out they are. Yes, there is the usual stuff about writing good papers, managing class participation, and making connections in a new social setting. [...]

It’s an odd experience to write a dissertation. Almost by definition if you get to the Ph.D. dissertation writing stage you must have been a decent student. Take my own experience as an example. I liked writing; I got good grades. I had written a lot of term papers. I passed my quals and the [...]

Let’s jump forward 20 years. Let’s also make a few commonsense projections: the internet/web/social media will continue to improve, and credentialing will only increase. It’s hard to argue with #1; we may disagree with the assumption of #2, but I don’t think that’s debatable either. That is, some may say that credentialing is wrong, etc., [...]

Some years ago an article in The Los Angeles Times discussed the explosive growth of yoga in southern California. I certainly have seen that growth in Silverlake; there must be a dozen yoga studios within two miles of our house. One of the points the article made was that at the time yoga instructors did [...]

This blog—the first of the academic year—now seems like an annual tradition. Over the past two years, I have started the year writing about my hopes and anticipations for the upcoming year. Today’s post is no different. Some feelings don’t change. For instance, there is nothing like the excitement of the first few weeks on [...]

by Randy Clemens Following Bill’s lead, I am going to talk about AERA. Last year I wrote The Dummies Guide to AERA: A First-Year’s Experiences Revisited. A bit disgruntled by a chorus of antipathy–professors and graduate students alike bemoaned the conference–I recounted my own experiences.  Overall, I enjoyed my time in San Diego and believed in [...]

by Randy Clemens This time two years ago I taught English to tenth and twelfth graders. The tenth graders read Of Mice and Men, which most did not like. The twelfth graders read Dante’s Inferno, which most did like. While all the students counted the days until holiday break, I waited to hear from the nine universities to [...]

by Bill Tierney Although tenure reviews take a great deal of time and I mentioned that I put them at the top of my list, I also review a fair number of articles for a variety of journals.  There are times when I’ll simply say no.  When I’m on leave, or during the summer, I’ll [...]

by Bill Tierney I came back from ASHE in Vancouver a week ago and finally have caught my breath.  In the meantime, I am heading to a conference in San Francisco, and I spoke at a one day event held in Las Vegas last Thursday.  The first ASHE conference I went to must have been [...]

Los Angeles has, arguably, the best symphony in the United States at the moment.   Our conductor, Esa Pekka Salonen, made a good symphony great.  Over the last dozen years, Angelenos have had a love affair with him, and he has loved Los Angeles in return.  When he announced his retirement there was a great deal [...]