academe

What is a discipline? Maybe it is the space-time of slowing down and going inward, having a conversation of such specificity and reference that only others in one's group understand. In the reading I'm doing this year, it is fascinating to see how often researchers move in and out of disciplines, sometimes addressing a wider audience and then, at others, being unable to resist the temptation to dally, linger, probe, analyze, scrutinize, challenge, and caress the disciplinary object.

One question I am asked most frequently by social scientists and scientists is why humanists stand at the podium and read their papers outloud. Good question. Here are my thoughts on that subject.

One of Julie Klein's students asked me to fill out a survey about blogging as part of her class project on "Integration" for the Wayne State University In|Formation Year contribution. Here's what I wrote in answer to her question on blogging and tenure and promotion.