October 21, 2009 – 5:08 pm
My colleague Neil McLaughlin has a blog post over at Canada’s Academic Matters that argues that it is unethical to require students to buy your own books, or at least to profit from the sale of those books:
There are, of course, good pedagogical reasons why a professor might want to assign a book they have [...]
October 7, 2009 – 10:07 pm
Princeton postdoc Amin Ghaziani writes of his decision to have his undergraduate class, “Queer Theory and Politics,” demonstrate against the National Organization for Marriage and then reflect upon and analyze the demonstration for class. The writeups–in the CBSM Newsletter and in Gay and Lesbian Studies–are thoughtful, informed, and thorough. Together they demonstrate that this exercise [...]
September 21, 2009 – 11:03 am
I’m on the committee to select the book UNC will recommend that incoming students read and then discuss during orientation. The selection has been controversial before, and sometimes not, and I enjoyed the committee last time. However, I’m concerned that too often we pick pretty straightforward narrative journalism about some case that doesn’t really challenge [...]
I present these intentionally with no interpretation, other than to say that these slides are part of my introductory lecture for graduate theory, “Why Theory?”.
The time has come to plan my syllabus for fall, 2009, graduate social theory. Last semester I screwed it up (yes, for those of you in the class, I admit it!) — I assigned a newish book I hadn’t read, by a reputable author, which turned out to be awful. The class was sporting about [...]
I’m going out on a limb to declare mine the first sociology course podcast featured by iTunes:
January 13, 2009 – 12:31 am
In case it is useful, I posted my rough “first day” comments for teaching a race class over on my own blog. It seems too long and specialized to post here; it is how I try to set the tone for the class. This is a follow up to our earlier discussions on teaching about [...]
January 12, 2009 – 8:22 pm
I’m posting this for New Soc Prof who raised the question in her own blog. What suggestions or advice do you have about teaching research methods and, in particular, what texts do you like, and why? Have you had good success with particular approaches or syllabi? Do you want to warn people off books or [...]
January 9, 2009 – 1:43 pm
Because inclement weather is a given around these parts during the winter, I’m having to switch up the first day of my social inequality class a bit. Because I’ve found scatterbrains so helpful with course related questions before, I thought it would be a good idea to pose this one here as well.
November 12, 2008 – 1:21 pm
Here are some of the things that annoy me in papers, presentations, etc., and that I’m apt to edit out or mark on manuscripts/papers I’m reviewing/grading:
Comprise vs. compose
Split infinitives
Use of “they” as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun
Use of the second person, just about ever
Use of “natural” or “human nature” as (implicit or explicit) cause of outcomes
Which [...]
September 23, 2008 – 2:23 pm
Inside Higher Ed has an article on “lecture capture,” an automated way of podcasting class lectures so that students can download them at their convenience. The article reports that a new survey shows that students prefer to have access to this technology, and it shares some faculty concerns that podcasting lectures diminishes the quality of [...]
All right, I need y’all’s sage advice. I’m going to have my first-year seminar this fall maintain a blog as part of their course work, and I need a name. The seminar is “Citizenship and Society in the United States,” and it’s focused on political participation, writ broadly, but using the election as a consistent [...]
(and to be informed).
Here’s a site that would workas a nice teaching resource (or for your own entertainment): http://freedocumentaries.org
From someone who is ABD. This is a very liberal paraphrase (you will note that the language is strongly shakha’s), but still accurate, I believe.
I have two committee members who don’t get along. They pull me in different directions. They’re not really interested in what the other person suggests, and sometimes even seem to pull [...]
A graduate student of mine is writing up a scholarship application that includes a one-page statement of proposed research. In giving this student feedback, I offered the following advice for what to include and the order in which to present it:
My proposed study is about this. Here is why this problem is important. Here is [...]
