Thinking more and more seriously that I should create a "Tutorials in Physics" journal that doesn't publish new research, but tutorials on advanced but relatively settled topics, aimed at first year PhD students who need an introduction to the topic. #Physics#AcademicChatter
"It is impossible to be a top-line manager and administrator and mentor and researcher and writer and outreach officer and IT expert and online instructor and pedagogical innovator and recruiter and teacher and marker and external examiner and press pundit and grant bidder and editor and look after your own wellbeing. No-one can do that. "
This article really resonates with me. The current system is untenable and most university administrations have taken away any agency that faculty have in the system.
Spelling it all out. Lots of quotable bits. Such as this:
"The growth of managerial and administrative grades responsible more and more for controlling academics rather than supporting them is one of the most important trends in the modern university. That structure emits a constant white noise and static of demands that don’t seem connected to lecturers’ training or aims. And that suppression of academic Voice is critical to a proletarianization or retreat of value and worth far more important than the squeeze on relative salaries (and therefore status) that we’ve concurrently been experiencing."
"Most people going into universities had at the start an ethical sense of their future, a vocation, something that wasn’t just mechanical but which was somehow simply right. The university must be just such a moral place, or it is nothing. As of now, it’s doing a pretty good job of looking like nothing: drab, pointless, miserable. That’s doing harm to all of us."
Question is, how to push back, when we are busy doing too much.
A pointed article about what is going wrong, in part, with academia.
“The growth of managerial and administrative grades responsible more and more for controlling academics rather than supporting them is one of the most important trends in the modern university. That structure emits a constant white noise and static of demands that don’t seem connected to lecturers’ training or aims”
One thing I wish more people did: when giving a talk, I start a clock on my phone, which rests next to the laptop, so I can stay on pace. I've also usually practiced talks multiple times before hand to get a feel for the pacing, so I know if I'm falling behind. Anyway, my colloquium at K State the other day was to be 45-50 minutes, and I hit it right on the money. #AcademicChatter#Astrodon
I finally did it: I went to the top of MBS like a proper tourist.
I spent so many good times at GBTB.
Especially at the beginning, when I was still staying at hotels in SG's Central area, I spent many a first date strolling through the gardens or around Marina Bay at night.
My colleague and I went flying his kite on Marina Barrage. When my parents visited, they posed for pics in front of MBS and we saw a drone show in the gardens.
My best friend and I went to the flower dome together, and to the GBTB Christmas Market.
The supergrove trees are a popular location for visiting geocachers to host their Singapore events, so I've experienced the Garden Rhapsody many times, also at special occasions like LNY.
One of the things I'm going to miss most is all the lush green here in SG. It's beautiful and always cheers me up. I'm sad every time a tree gets taken down by a thunderstorm. I had an amazing view of all that green from the top of MBS.
Been awhile, but I guess I could do a #3GoodThings today.
Unravelled a knot that had me stuck in a chapter of #Rosemirror
Listening to The National all morning while working on my Oral Literacy lecture.
Enjoying teaching (and in so doing learning more )about Literacy. Fascinating field, many intersections with my focus in Popular Culture, Literature and Philosophy.
Our first ever cohort of Climatematch Impact Scholars has wrapped up their research projects and presented them to experts from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project and LEAP this week.
After last year’s Climatematch Academy, these 11 teams of up-and-coming researchers from all around the globe were selected to pursue research topics ranging from the influence of ENSO on the coastal upwelling along Northwest Africa to fire events in Argentinian Andean-Patagonian Forests.
Throughout this journey, Scholars received computing resources, guidance through workshops, and mentoring from international experts in their fields.
We would like to give a huge thanks to our Scholars, their mentors, our seminar chairs and the group of dedicated volunteers that made the program possible.
Interested in becoming an Impact Scholar yourself? You have one day left to apply to join Climatematch Academy 2024.