Sexism sells

There is a long-standing connection between women and cars.  And by “connection” I mean that men seem to like looking at women and cars together, as seen on the covers of many car magazines (incidentally, I’ve never understood this connection and always wished that the models would get out of the way so I could [...]

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ABF – All but filing

Dissertation defenses are strange to me.  If your chair has done his or her job, there should be no question of whether or not you will pass.*  Even though the defense is discussed as a major milestone like finishing your M.A., completing your prelims, or passing your dissertation proposal defense, the experience itself is anti-climactic.  [...]

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The social construction of Michael Jackson

Although he has always appeared frail, the hospitalization and subsequent death of Michael Jackson surprised me.  Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon had their biggest impacts on older generations, but I was becoming aware of music videos at the peak of Jackson’s fame and have been aware of the trials and tribulations that followed, from declining [...]

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All I really need to know about sociology I learned from Comte

I have spent the past 10 years of my life learning about sociology (three years as an undergraduate major and seven years in grad school).  Imagine my surprise, then, when I read this and realized that if I had wanted to know about sociology all I had to do was read a few things by [...]

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Bad reviews

Today I read a bad paper that I will be giving a bad review.  I haven’t reviewed many papers, so I am hoping that I have just had bad luck so far, but it seems that every time I agree to review a paper it has serious flaws.  While the authors were kind enough to [...]

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Ebert on O’Reilly*

Every time I see a link to something from Roger Ebert’s blog I think that I need to read it more often.  A link to a recent post is no different.  In the post, Ebert discusses Bill O’Reilly and the ramifications that those like him have for cultural discourse in the US.  A few highlights: [...]

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Changing perspectives

It is amazing how quickly attitudes can change with one’s condition.  While I have been fortunate to be paid relatively well as a graduate student, there were a number of times when more money would have been useful.  To keep things in perspective, I have no kids, no house (and none of the potentially high [...]

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Bozeman, MT: “Sir, I’m going to need to see your backstage.”

There have been a number of times that I’ve discussed the ways in which public information on the internet is not private.  If you make photos or information about yourself publicly available, you have to recognize that others might take it into consideration when forming an opinion of you.  Now, however, the city of Bozeman, [...]

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Teaching without a net

While the prospect of preparing for 42 class sessions in a semester is daunting, it doesn’t compare to the idea of being thrown in front of a classroom full of college students less than four months after completing your own college degree.  As a new pseudonymous writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education describes: When [...]

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Forty two meetings

In preparing my syllabi for the fall semester I discovered that my three-a-week courses meet 42 times.  The prospect of coming up with forty two interesting lectures/discussions/exercises is daunting.  I suppose that a positive aspect of meeting 42 times for 50 minute sessions is that if any particular lecture/discussion/exercise turns into a disaster the students [...]

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