Last week, Fox News helped my dissertation research immensely. I learned about five books that I definitely need to read based on their coverage of a course at Arizona State University titled “U.S. Race Theory and the Problem of Whiteness.” The course is taught by Professor Lee Bebout who has […]
“Peripheries and Boundaries” was the theme of this year’s Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) Conference in Seattle. Many of the symposia focused on the issues that arise when people and archaeologists focus on spaces in flux including diaspora, racialization, power differentials, and identity. Along with the question “Will the Seahawks […]
This morning, I read just about the most frightening story a young PhD student/aspiring academician could read. In case you didn’t know, Stefan Grimm, a toxicology professor at Imperial College London, ended his life in September, 2014 at the age of 51. What drove this prodigious professor to kill himself? […]
Depending on your sources, between 49 and 66% of all college professors are adjuncts. Full-time, untenured faculty composes 19 percent of professors, which means, at most, only a third of professors are on the tenure track. As a PhD student, I’ve been steadily encouraged to keep up hope about becoming […]
This weekend, the unthinkable happened. I got a 60% on an assignment in one of my historic preservation graduate seminars. I haven’t done this poorly on an assignment since 9th grade geometry. How the hell did this happen?
As a long-time historical archaeologist working in cultural resource management, I’ve been overjoyed to see how much archival information has been brought to the internet. I do not think there will ever be a day when a visit to the archives is no longer necessary, mainly because most archival repositories […]
I’m writing this blog post from the Denver International Airport, en route back to Tucson after spending a fruitful July working on archaeological excavations in Glacier National Park. This project came close on the heels of a fruitful dissertation research trip to Boise, Idaho. Needless to say, this summer has […]
I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Boise, Idaho (Java Coffee and Café to be exact) enjoying Boise’s best coffee drink— the Bowl of Soul. This coffee didn’t come easily though. I’m coming off a 3-hour-long scanning binge that has resulted in the digitization of a huge amount of archival […]
“School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.” Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (1971) I’ve decided to take some time to write a short summary of my PhD at the University of Arizona. Sometime in 2012, […]
Sometimes you read the obvious, but it doesn’t really sink in. Sometimes the obvious sinks right in to your core. I just finished reading two blog posts this week about the travails of post-PhD life. In 2011, Roderick asked “Is your PhD Worthless?” Partially answering his own question, Roderick mentions […]
