Carrie was out for a walk this afternoon with some of the other fellows. The street by the Center was closed off and Obama’s motorcade drove by on the way to Facebook. He’s apparently a commanding presence in real life, in a car, driving by. They waved to him, he waved back. I told her …
Author Archives: Jonathan Sterne
Things I Did Today, Among Some Others
1. Sent out taxes. 2. Printed out and sent out MP3 manuscript back to Duke (“special tax day edition”). It will come back one more time but still. 3. Read AAUP statement on Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession. 4. Now will look at one-way flights from Los Angeles to Montreal in mid August, before …
LA-bound
Carrie and I both got fellowships to do a four week digital humanities institute at USC. So we’ll be heading down, and hopefully spending about six weeks in LA from 1 July-15 August. Now we just need to find a place to stay. The LA trip is great for several reasons: the compare/contrast with northern …
AAA, WTF?
The American Anthropological Association meets next fall in Montreal. I’m excited to see some friends, and when some colleagues asked me to be on a panel, I agreed. Little did I know that the paper submission process involved a money grab by AAA, and that their conference registration system has no provision for participation from …
A lesson for the humanities from new music
This month’s issue of The Wire has a nice article on the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (including a wonderful description of the dilapidated condition of the original equipment). It was the first thing I’d read about Milton Babbitt in a long time, which led me to go find his infamous 1958 essay “Who Cares if …
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Don’t we already have coalitions?
I have been following the coverage of the Canadian election with my usual-wish-I-could-vote interest. Everyone is so exercised about coalitions. But Canada’s a constitutional monarchy. It’s got a parliament. What exactly do you call it when no party wins a majority and then other parties vote with them to keep them in power? I think …
Academic Labor in Communication Studies — Call for Papers, Commentary and Multimedia
(apologies for cross-posting; please distribute widely) International Journal of Communication Feature Special Section on Academic Labor and Administration in Communication Studies Edited by Jonathan Sterne Academic labor today is characterized by a series of disconcerting trends: an increasingly casualized professoriate; universities that increasingly depend on chronically undercompensated part-time and graduate student labor to support their …