I feel like every other entry on this blog begins with a variation of “I’ve been very busy lately” but this one ends the sentence differently: “I’ve been very busy lately with stuff I couldn’t talk about.” Around the middle of May, the chips fell and it became clear that I was to be the …
Category Archives: Academe
Conference Report
I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything like the last week. Our department has (nominally) 14 faculty members, so it’s not a particularly big place. And yet there were three conferences in a single week, all based in our department and all exquisitely executed. I couldn’t have managed full attendance at every event given other …
A Whole Week of Conferences
I’ve always said Canadians love conferences, and this week is an intense one, with me not even leaving town. T&W: I’m at a workshop for my Augmented Reality Research Team (well, it’s not my team; I’m just on it) Th: [CTRL]: TAS : Technology : Art : Society — organized by a grad student collective …
A Few Thoughts on the Virginia Tech Massacre
Despite my taste for violence in fiction, I have a very limited appetite for mediatic violence when it corresponds to something that actually happened. Which is to say that I’m not particularly a news junkie when it comes to disaster and monstrosity and thus have not been following the Virginia Tech Massacre beyond reading enough …
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The Week of “I Can’t Believe I Get to Work Here”
That was the week inbetween my trip to Chicago and my trip to New York. John Durham Peters was in residence was in residence here and I had much fun with him. Georgina Born came and gave a talk on a Thursday afternoon. I had a great time with my grad students. My undergrad class …
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Belated Baudrillard Anecdote to Serve as an Obit
Fall 1995 was the first time I ever got to teach in my area of substantive expertise — it was an intro to communication studies course. I’d cleverly begun with McLuhan (yes, I know I know) and the “Medium is the Message” essay. The course ended with Baudrillard’s “Requiem for the Media” which is essentially …
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So Very Academic Jet-Set
Last night, Carrie and I arrived in the airport on different flights 10 minutes apart and shared a cab home. It’s been that kind of month. In fact, the only reason I’m writing this morning is because the Quebec election has meant that classes today are cancelled. So much as been going on this month …