University of Chicago project link: http://www.wisdomresearch.org/

(Story via: http://improbable.com/2008/01/10/the-cost-of-wisdom/)

Will the Humanities Save Us? by Stanley Fish

Someone please let me know if that link doesn't work!

A very interesting blog post which very much echos an "art for art's sake" sentiment. I found the following particularly thought -provoking:

The premise of secular humanism (or of just old-fashioned humanism) is that the examples of action and ( Read more... )

I found this on a blog, and thought people here might find it interesting:

"If only we had forgiven Iraq for 9/11"

I have now received three (3) student papers that discuss Iraq's attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. All three papers mention it as an aside to another point. I've had two papers on the virtue of forgiveness that argue that if we had ( Read more... )

I was fascinated by this article in Inside Higher Ed regarding trends towards requiring background checks for faculty. The rationale is, of course, security in the wake of school shootings, etc., though offhand I can't recall any incidents in which a professor brought the gun up to the clocktower. But there is also a move to run more background ( Read more... )

"Brian May is completing his doctorate in astrophysics, more than 30 years after he abandoned his studies to form the rock group Queen.

"The 60-year-old guitarist and songwriter said he plans to submit his thesis, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," to supervisors at Imperial College London within the next two weeks."

Read more (AP ( Read more... )

The description of this community says the following:

Academic (n): One who has a career or intends to make a career in higher education. This includes, faculty, graduate students, university researchers, and, at times, administrators (those who have also once functioned as academic in the strict sense). People who qualify by this definition are ( Read more... )

...it's all about buying stuff apparently: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/so-college-students-make-the-most-of-your-educational-experience.html

*Slightly alarmed by the fact that books don't even warrant a mention ( Read more... )

Someone recently recommended TED on a forum that I frequent, and I thought it might be of interest to others in this community. The person linking it suggested, "If S.P.E.C.T.R.E. did good instead of evil it would look like this." Ha. Anyway, from their about page: TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a ( Read more... )

Does this outrage/frighten anyone in the literary field interested in studying/currently studying literary reception and book history. As a 2008 grad school hopeful interested primarily in these fields, it makes me fear for my future ability to do reception work on contemporary lit. *Sigh* at those who feel book reviews are becoming irrelevant.

From time to time, the question of what "theory" is, and how we feel about it, pops up in this community. Recent examples include this post, this, this, and this.  Each time, some of us express concern or dislike, or question the relevance and importance of Theory, types of theory, etc; but these opinions are often not all that welcome. It is ( Read more... )