By Matt Reed. Sometimes, the dog that doesn’t bark is more telling than the dog that does.
Massachusetts has a gubernatorial election next month. The incumbent is term-limited out of office, so in terms of incumbent effects, it’s an open seat.
But from walking around campus, you wouldn’t know it. Read more...
By Matt Reed. I try not to subject the kids to too many of my pet obsessions. Last weekend, though, I just couldn’t resist.
How often do you get to see the Magna Carta?
We took the kids to the Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, to see the “Radical Words” exhibit. It’s there for a few more weeks, and I really can’t recommend it highly enough. Read more...
By Shira Lurie. Katy Meyers Emery has ingeniously compared graduate school to a zombie apocalypse. She is certainly correct that “the rise of the undead serves as a great metaphor for grad school.” As my doctoral career gets underway, I have personally likened success in grad school to a high-security bank vault. You need a good plan, a special set of skills, and a lot of hard work to break in, but the treasure inside will pay off big. If you have ever seen a heist movie, you know that the first thing every good heist leader must do is assemble a crack team. Read more...
By Hanna Peacock. Much of what we do as STEM grad students is creative. Troubleshooting experiments, planning a talk, or designing a poster all require imaginative thinking in some form. Oftentimes, our best ideas aren’t produced when sitting behind our laptops. They come to us while washing dishes, daydreaming, or in the shower. That is, some of our best ideas happen when we are not in the lab or the office. Read more...
By Rosemarie Emanuele. The story of Greek mathematician and philosopher Hypatia (an ancient woman!), who was killed in 415 AD is at least part of the inspiration for the bulletin board that stood outside the Math department for several years. It read “Do something Dangerous: Study Math”, and reflected the fact that at various times in history, knowledge of math was viewed as dangerous and illegal. Hypatia was just one of many who were persecuted for knowing and teaching math over the centuries. Indeed, the Jesuit explorer Mateo Ricci wrote home in the early 1600s that in China, it was illegal, under threat of death, to study math, unless granted permission by the emperor. The knowledge that knowing math brought with it was seen as subversive and dangerous by those in power, and was therefore sometimes forbidden by law. I found myself thinking of this recently as I learned of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a teenage girl from Pakistan who almost died in her attempts to help girls obtain an education. Read more...By Susan O'Doherty. Bill is recovering well from his surgery. He isn't out and about on his own yet, but he is able to move around the apartment well; he is no longer using painkillers; and his surgeon, visiting nurse, and physical therapist are all pleased. Read more...
By Paul Jump for Times Higher Education. News that a group of Swedish scientists had been planting Bob Dylan song titles into papers had other academics emailing each other with similar challenges. That was until it transpired that one Swiss-French professor had already gone far further – with a reference to mothers in leopard-print G-strings. Read more...
By Paul Fain. The concept of tuition-free community college is picking up steam. Chicago this month followed Tennessee with the creation of a new community-college scholarship for high school graduates. Read more...
By Colleen Flaherty. The liberal arts have long been subject to criticism and even ridicule from those who don’t see their immediate value; the debate over utilitarian versus broad education is ancient. But there’s something particularly pernicious about the current climate, it seems, with threats to funding models for such programs in some states, for example. Read more...
By Matthew Crawford. Pushing all school leavers to university isn't serving them well – neither as a system for cultivating their minds, nor for guaranteeing economic stability, says Matthew Crawford. Read more.../https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
