I just came back from China—my fourth trip. This time it was to Jishou University in Hunan Province for a few days. Jishou is the capital city for the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao and Autonomous Prefecture and is in a remote mountainous corner in China. Still it has the hallmarks of every other Chinese city I’ve visited, including thirty story high apartment blocks, and a very social public square where during the evenings hundreds of people come out to do rhythmic dancing, and generally socialize in the evening.…
Initiating Conversations with a Spoiled Identity: The dissonance of language use and race in Germany and Thailand
I taught Erving Goffman’s book Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity in Germany last month. One of the things that came up was how students are culturally and linguistically German (i.e. German is their first language) but racially “different” manage their identity as a non-white. In other words, they deal with the dissonance between a linguistic and cultural identity, in the context of racial beliefs about what it means to be German. …
Cooling Out the Adjunct Pool
Last week, I wrote about how “graduate students” are “cooled out” of PhD. programs in something of a pyramid scheme, i.e. how 60-70% of the students who are admitted eventually drop out of the program, while blaming their “failure” on themselves, and not the larger system.
August is the month in the United States where many adjunct faculty are being told “I’m sorry we don’t have any classes for you,” for reasons beyond the control of the Chair, Dean, or other administrator in charge of hiring.…
Why Do I speak German like a Hollander, and Thai so Clearly?
I have been in Thailand a week now, and have had plenty of chances to speak Thai, often because I have to explain about how my daughter broker her back last week. I speak Thai as a result of my Peace Corps and after experience in Thailand in 1980-1983, and some brush-up tutoring a couple of years ago. Anyway, I find that I speak Thai with a great deal of confidence after all these years—and why shouldn’t I?…
Broken Femurs and Cracked Backs: An Ethnography of Thai Motorcycle Safety
Introduction
We arrived in Thailand last Thursday to visit our daughter Kirsten who teaches English in a Thai school. Within a half hour of arrival we were informed that she had just had an accident. She was driving her scooter near a Thai market in the small city of Phrae, when a “white car” backed out in front of her. She hit the brakes, skidded out, and fell into an on-coming truck whose wheels gave her back a big whack.…
Leaving Germany Again: Something about Bildung, Auschwitz, and Dresden
I’m leaving Germany after a two month long teaching gig at Leuphana University in Lueneburg, which is near Hamburg. Again I was impressed with the version of a university education that is being developed there—it values learning and investigation.
Here is a blog I wrote about German Bildung, the philosophy of education, two years ago: http://www.ethnography.com/2013/02/building-bildung-and-other-improbabilities-among-german-university-undergrads/
As a going away blogs, I’m also leaving you with two of my favorite Germany blogs, both having to do with Germany during World War II.…
How are the Minds of PhD Students “Disciplined” by Graduate School?
Thinking about getting a PhD? Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt is the book to read. Already getting a PhD, ditto. Already have a PhD? You should also read this book, even though it was published way back in 2000, and relies on data from the 1980s and 1990s. It applies to today as well—little has changed. What is more, it gives an insight not only to how graduate schools seeks to shape and discipline a conservative cadre of future professors, the principles can also be applied to the pursuit of tenure for people who have made it that far.…
What would George Carlin Say? Might Translation be Reverse Plagiarism?
Still they ask you in court to “use your own words,” and more to the point of my profession, we tell our students to “use your own words,” and we even have fancy computer programs like “turnitin.com” that help us haul offenders off for plagiarism, which is the crime of using someone else’s own words which is, like I said above, is just about all I ever do.
The only people I can think of who made up any number of their own words are Charles Dickens, James Joyce, and Mark Twain.…
Audience Reception of “Sing Along” Music: Hey Jude 1969 vs. Michael Row the Boat Ashore 1963
I have used this clip of Pete Seeger singing “Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore” in class for some years, now. The song is a great example of how the music of the American slave cabins moved into the mainstream American culture, and then moved all the way to Australia where this clip was made in 1962 or so.
It also, I think illustrates two things about the audience, first that audiences in 1962 were very open to a “sing-a-long,” The audience knew the words, and sang along with Seeger quite competently, and in their own ways enthusiastically.…
The US Army’s Human Terrain System Bites the Dust
The Human Terrain System (HTS) was an important subject at Ethnography.com when the military began funding it in 2006-2007 or so. The program was established to bring anthropological understandings of culture into the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq.
There was a great deal of controversy in the AAA, and those of us at Ethnography.com at the time responded about the strengths and weaknesses of the program, as well as whether AAA’s approach.…
Why is Queen Nefertiti’s Bust in Berlin, and not Egypt?
Last weekend, I visited The Egyptian Queen Nefertiti this weekend on a trip to Berlin’s Neues Museum. “New” being a museum built in the mid-nineteenth century, bombed during World War II, and finally re-opened in 2009 after reconstruction following German Reunification.
The bust of Nefertiti is the Neues Museum’s best-known artifact. The Nefertiti statue is of Egypt’s Queen during the period of approximately 1370 BC-1330 BC. The statue is known for the skill that the sculptor Thutmose put into it, the well-preserved coloration, and the beauty of Nefertiti herself.…
Are Long-term Job Prospects Better for Philosophers than for Engineers?
Why philsopher’s might be optimistic about future job prospects, form Matt Buriesci at Guernia.com, in the ironically titled article “The Arts and Humanities aren’t Worth a Dime.”
Yes, really, Buriesci is predicting that future job prospects for philosophers are more promising than for engineers. Engineers can be replaced with algorithms, but sound judgment, appreciation of history, and appreciation of art is not.
Warning: This is not a quick obvious read. …