Disembodied Fish

Stanley Fish’s op-ed in today’s New York Times(1) argues that professors must separate themselves from their subject matter in the classroom. I believe we have some professional duties which require us to put our “selves” aside (for instance, not grading down students for disagreeing with us) but I also think that there are times when …

Google Book Search

So today was my first serious encounter with google book search. I hadn’t played around with it much, but came across an unattributed phrase in a so-so book on animal rights called An Unnatural Order. The book argues that the domination of nature through agriculture, men’s domination of women, people’s domination of animals and colonial …

A New Series: On Books, “The Book,” Writing, Etc.

So I’ve decided to start using my “category” function and start doing “series” on various things. The topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately is publishing — the state of the book, the way publishing works, debates about open access and the public status of scholarship, etc. I’ve also been collecting some odds …

A Little Academic History

So I was over at the website for the Society for the Social Study of Science to see if this year’s program had been posted yet (travel arrangements, you know — Westjet has some direct flights to Vancouver) and stumbled across their historical programs, which includes the program from the first meeting at Cornell University. …

Letter to a Friend Who Wants to Start Up a Blog

Here’s an email I sent a friend this weekend. Not sure why I’m feeling like reproducing it here, but I do. Dear XXXX, You asked about getting into blogging. As far as front end goes, I recommend blogspot over the others. Seems relatively straightforward and reliable. And it doesn’t come with a “rep” like livejournal …

Last Night on the Road . . . for less than a week

Tonight’s my last night on the road until next Tuesday (when I take off again for two weeks). There’s much I’d like to blog about but I’ll just post about a couple things for now: 1. One of the pleasures of being in Washington DC with my family is that I always get a few …