This post is a collection of some of my favorite cartoons about academic life, many of which come from the Jorge Chan website PHDComics.com. Enjoy.
Category: Academic Life
Rose Horowitch — The Perverse Consequences of the Easy A
This post is a lovely essay by Rose Horowitch, recently published in Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. The average GPA of the graduating class at Harvard is a resounding 3.8. Really? Grade inflation is as disease with multiple causes -- the popularity contest of teacher evaluations, the urge to keep the customer happy, … Continue reading Rose Horowitch — The Perverse Consequences of the Easy A
John Etchemendy — The Threat from Within
This post is a speech that Stanford's former provost, John Etchemendy, recently gave to the university's board of trustees. Right now, the threats to universities are coming fast and furious from the outside, with the new administration canceling research grants, threatening to cut indirect cost reimbursement, and to tax endowment income. But in this speech … Continue reading John Etchemendy — The Threat from Within
College Teaching Is Better than You’d Expect
This is an essay that is published in my recent book, Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. For years, I'd been thinking about writing a piece about college teaching and I finally put it down on paper a couple years ago. Everyone complains about the quality of college teaching, … Continue reading College Teaching Is Better than You’d Expect
Nick Burbules — How Activist Speech Threatens Educational Values
This post is an essay by Nick Burbules that recently appeared in Inside Higher Ed. Here's a link to the original. How Activist Speech Threatens Educational Values Nicholas C. Burbules argues that activist speech, while generally protected, exists uneasily in a campus context. By Nicholas C. Burbules Many universities are struggling to reconcile the principles of … Continue reading Nick Burbules — How Activist Speech Threatens Educational Values
Eliot Cohen — The Great Academic Squirm
This post is an essay by Eliot Cohen, which was published recently in the Atlantic. Here's a link to the original. He's making the argument that universities have no business taking stands on major issues of public policy and international affairs that are outside the scope of their institutional domain. It's in line the Chicago position … Continue reading Eliot Cohen — The Great Academic Squirm
Cartoons about Academic Research
This post is a collection of some favorite cartoons about the nature of academic research. All of them are from the website PhD, which stands for Piled Higher and Deeper. The author is Jorge Cham, who got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford and then taught at Cal Tech. Enjoy!
Cartoons about the Life of a Doctoral Student
This post is a collection of some favorite cartoons about the Life of a Doctoral Student. All of them are from the website PhD, which stands for Piled Higher and Deeper. The author is Jorge Cham, who got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford and then taught at Cal Tech. Enjoy!
Being a Scholar
This post is an overview of the book I published last spring. It’s available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. The title is Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. Below is the book’s introduction, which provides the rationale for the book and summarizes the eleven pieces that you will … Continue reading Being a Scholar
Len Gutkin — The Hyperbolic Style in American Academe
This post is an essay by Len Gutkin that was recently published in the Chronicle Review. Here's a link to the original. The essay does a great job of capturing the essence of a new form of discourse on American university campuses he calls the "hyperbolic style" -- which he characterizes as "breathless, declaratory, at … Continue reading Len Gutkin — The Hyperbolic Style in American Academe
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 