Thanks for the Just Security link! That will come in handy as I increasingly avoid the outrage machine, which just upsets me to no avail and take up *too much time*. Meanwhile, with the disclaimer that I am a family member and of course want you to have a gazillion subscribers, I have thought about it and cannot fathom why it would be unethical to ask readers to share and subscribe to your publication because Afghanistan is in a crisis (I presume that's what the reader meant). Of course, I am open to any arguments to the contrary, but does the New York Times suspend their marketing campaigns or stop asking people to subscribe when global disasters are going on? I don't think so. So why should you, a single person who has no marketing department and yet somehow managed to crank out volumes of quality writing while still being a history professor and book writer? Let's face it, folks: the world is an ongoing, ceaseless human rights disaster, now is no different. If there is one thing that we can do to address that sad fact, it's to support intelligent analysis of what's going -- with our pockets.
I liked it a lot. Sure, they got a few things wrong but they got a lot more right than most attempts to represent professions and workplaces that tv considers "elite." (Besides "ivy league" type colleges, look at what they do w/ artists and galleries! and classical musicians!) Anyway, I'd watch anything that Sandra Oh does. I've been reading articles about the show that focus on her take and she really does get her character, even though she's never been in the academic world (unlike, according to her, some of the older actors on the show who've been teaching acting). Check out the show by show commentary by 5 faculty in the Chronicle (including a young faculty member at Lang). I sort of think they missed a lot, maybe being from a younger generation? (I'm 79 and spent a large part of my academic life in administration so I related to a lot.) But, the main reason I'm commenting here is because I thought it was interesting that none of the many many articles I've read about the show mentioned the, I assume ironic, name of the fictional university: Pembroke, which was, in real life, the name of the women's college affiliated w/ the men's only Brown University. (I know because it was one of the school's I wanted to go to but couldn't afford.) Coincidence? Could be.
Also ironic is Prof. Dobson's defense of the student protesters as something "they are supposed to do:" dissent. It would appear that the student protest was proof that the university has failed to teach students the difference between an emblematic Nazi salute during a university discussion on fascism and a real Nazi sympathizer. Additionally, would have also been a moment to teach students critical thinking in that a single internet meme does not rise to the bar as evidence. While not grounds for dismissal, a real conversation can be had about the freedom to do that in class and perhaps the need for clear guidelines on this regardless of tenure.
I decided to watch as I was hunkered down waiting for Henri. I am not an academic, but I do have a Liberal Arts degree with a concentration in literature. I thought it was ironic that Ji-Yoon would quote Harold Bloom who did not get along with his own English department at Yale. He called the English department a "School of Resentment" for what he thought was their practice of ideological close reading. According to Yale Alumni Magazine, Bloom's Sterling "professorship wasn’t in English literature, but the Humanities. He asked for and received a place in a “department” of one." Having Ji-Yoon choose her self-destructive man over her "Chair" continues to undermine one of the narratives of what one would have thought the series was trying to subvert. I thought maybe with the introduction of David Duchovny they were going to draw an analogy between Melville the wife beater and Duchovny the sex addict who inflicted emotional and physical abuse on his then wife Tea Leoni. But alas no.
Thanks for the Just Security link! That will come in handy as I increasingly avoid the outrage machine, which just upsets me to no avail and take up *too much time*. Meanwhile, with the disclaimer that I am a family member and of course want you to have a gazillion subscribers, I have thought about it and cannot fathom why it would be unethical to ask readers to share and subscribe to your publication because Afghanistan is in a crisis (I presume that's what the reader meant). Of course, I am open to any arguments to the contrary, but does the New York Times suspend their marketing campaigns or stop asking people to subscribe when global disasters are going on? I don't think so. So why should you, a single person who has no marketing department and yet somehow managed to crank out volumes of quality writing while still being a history professor and book writer? Let's face it, folks: the world is an ongoing, ceaseless human rights disaster, now is no different. If there is one thing that we can do to address that sad fact, it's to support intelligent analysis of what's going -- with our pockets.
I liked it a lot. Sure, they got a few things wrong but they got a lot more right than most attempts to represent professions and workplaces that tv considers "elite." (Besides "ivy league" type colleges, look at what they do w/ artists and galleries! and classical musicians!) Anyway, I'd watch anything that Sandra Oh does. I've been reading articles about the show that focus on her take and she really does get her character, even though she's never been in the academic world (unlike, according to her, some of the older actors on the show who've been teaching acting). Check out the show by show commentary by 5 faculty in the Chronicle (including a young faculty member at Lang). I sort of think they missed a lot, maybe being from a younger generation? (I'm 79 and spent a large part of my academic life in administration so I related to a lot.) But, the main reason I'm commenting here is because I thought it was interesting that none of the many many articles I've read about the show mentioned the, I assume ironic, name of the fictional university: Pembroke, which was, in real life, the name of the women's college affiliated w/ the men's only Brown University. (I know because it was one of the school's I wanted to go to but couldn't afford.) Coincidence? Could be.
Also ironic is Prof. Dobson's defense of the student protesters as something "they are supposed to do:" dissent. It would appear that the student protest was proof that the university has failed to teach students the difference between an emblematic Nazi salute during a university discussion on fascism and a real Nazi sympathizer. Additionally, would have also been a moment to teach students critical thinking in that a single internet meme does not rise to the bar as evidence. While not grounds for dismissal, a real conversation can be had about the freedom to do that in class and perhaps the need for clear guidelines on this regardless of tenure.
I decided to watch as I was hunkered down waiting for Henri. I am not an academic, but I do have a Liberal Arts degree with a concentration in literature. I thought it was ironic that Ji-Yoon would quote Harold Bloom who did not get along with his own English department at Yale. He called the English department a "School of Resentment" for what he thought was their practice of ideological close reading. According to Yale Alumni Magazine, Bloom's Sterling "professorship wasn’t in English literature, but the Humanities. He asked for and received a place in a “department” of one." Having Ji-Yoon choose her self-destructive man over her "Chair" continues to undermine one of the narratives of what one would have thought the series was trying to subvert. I thought maybe with the introduction of David Duchovny they were going to draw an analogy between Melville the wife beater and Duchovny the sex addict who inflicted emotional and physical abuse on his then wife Tea Leoni. But alas no.
I dread satires of academia, but thought this one was spot on and funny. what more can you ask?
I usually dread satires of academia but thought this was funny and spot on. We found ourselves saying at certain points: been there, done that.