Month: February 2012

Is the Word “Literature” Scary?

~ Clarissa ~ 26 Comments

How do you feel about the suggestion that the word “Literature” be removed from the name of the department because when students hear it they supposedly get discouraged? And that instead of being a “Department of Languages and Literature”, it’s better to be a “Department of Languages and Cultures” because “culture” is more likely to attract students?

I feel that I don’t really need students who have such an unhealthy reaction to the word “literature.” Why should we cater to this kind of weird people and pretend that we are doing something other than what we are doing?

What do you, folks, think? It kind of really matters to me that I can remain working at a Department of Literature but I need help to win this argument with my colleagues.

New Job Interview Style

~ Clarissa ~ 11 Comments

OK, I have to share this. There is a new style of interviewing people for jobs. You fly, say, 15 people in. You meet them all at the airport, interview them there for 2 hours, select the 3 you like and drive them to your facilities for a visit and the rest of the interview.

The unlucky 12 are put on the plane back right there at the airport.

If you want to ask why Skype isn’t used instead, I’m as puzzled as you are.

This is actually being done at my university right now. If anybody has any explanations, please share.

Who Wants to Control Women’s Bodies?

~ Clarissa ~ 28 Comments

Here is a completely shocking story about a horrible vile monster of a woman who refuses her raped daughter a Plan B pill in order to brag about it online to her equally monstrous friends.

Now repeat after me: the anti-choice movement is not about men wanting to control women’s bodies. It’s about a bunch of vile freakazoids wanting to control women’s bodies.

Great Motivation

~ Clarissa ~ 6 Comments

So I almost interrupted my Seinfeld Chain yesterday. You don’t want to hear my excuses because they are all very predictable and amount to one thing: simple laziness.

Then I went to Jonathan’s blog in search for motivation and read the following statement:

Just remember that there are people like me out there, people who not only have the intellectual capability to publish scholarship of high quality, but who also can work over a hundred days straight on a major project.

And that really lit a fire under my ass. “Oh, really?” I exclaimed loudly, scaring people who were hanging out in the vicinity of my office. “And you are suggesting that I’m not such a person? That I can’t do it? I’ll show you!”

After which, I attacked my document with a passionate dedication.

It’s  a rare skill to know how to motivate people as well as Jonathan does.

P.S. I know that people are bored by the posts on my struggle with research but scholarship is a huge part of my life and I want to write about it. Since I have abandoned personal diary writing in favor of the blog, I need a place to record my journey as a researcher. Feel free to scroll down for more general interest posts.

Holodomor Deniers

~ Clarissa ~ 18 Comments

My regular readers know that I don’t throw around the word “fascist” lightly. I hate it when people employ it in the meaning of “a person I dislike or disagree with.”

However, I absolutely insist that anybody who denies the horrible reality of the Holodomor, a famine organized by Stalin’s regime that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians in 1931-2, is no different from a Holocaust denier. And I will tell such people that they are fascists.

I also want to point out to the especially clueless that recognizing the very well-documented historical reality of Holodomor does not make one an anti-Semite. I first found out about the horrors of Holodomor from my father, a Jew. He told me this was one of the greatest tragedies of humankind. And it insults me that some jerks would equate being Jewish with being a Holodomor-denier.

I have talked to people who lived in Ukraine in 1931-2. They told me about corpses lying in the streets, people from the country-side coming to the city to beg for food for their starving children, and the military chasing them back to the country-side. You have to be a real animal to deny their stories.

Watch the following and, please, finally, shut the fuck up about the Holodomor.

Yet Another Debacle at Yale

~ Clarissa ~ 33 Comments

A popular professor at Yale moved his course to a smaller auditorium. He made this decision because the smaller facility has no Wi-Fi and the students will not be distracting by Internet browsing and texting. As a result, only 250 (as opposed to the regular 500) students managed to enroll.

Immediately, outrage ensued. Here is an example of what the opponents of Professor’s Nemerov are saying:

As an alum with a child currently at Yale, this is very disappointing news. One of the hallmarks of the Yale College academic experience used to be free access to almost any class. Courses offered in lecture format were never capped; only college seminars had limited enrollments, and these were advertised in the Blue Book in advance. In short, one was guaranteed a spot in any lecture class that struck one’s interest. . . A grounding in Art History is essential to the formation of a well educated person. By all accounts Prof. Nemerov is an inspiring lecturer; I fear that, in seeking the comforts and superior technology of the YUAG auditorium, he is forsaking the opportunity to shape hundreds of minds over the years. I hope that he will reconsider.

The discussion of this story has its participants split into the “Wi-Fi good /  prof bad” versus “”Wi-Fi bad /  prof good” camps. Now, notice that the easiest solution to the entire issue is not even occurring to anybody. Two thirds of all undergrad courses at Yale are not taught by professors. They are taught by contingent faculty and graduate students. As a result, students jump at every opportunity to see an actual specialist with an actual PhD diploma and a record of publications in the field. This is how classes end up with such huge enrollments.

Why not just start hiring more people into tenure-track positions, you’ll ask. I’m asking myself the same question. Sadly, Yale’s administration is not.

Jokes in the Classroom

~ Clarissa ~ 7 Comments

I never understood those professors who write down their jokes in advance and then use them every semester. I had a prof who’d add his jokes to his lesson plans and mark them in red.

For me it never works because every group is different. I teach two sections of the same course this semester. This morning, I made some jokes in the first section that really slaughtered. Students laughed so hard that the walls shook.

So I decided to repeat the same jokes in the second section. And they fell completely flat. The students gave me compassionate looks and forced polite smiles.

I’m not sharing the jokes here because they make no sense outside the context of our course. Still, how cool is it that students is Spanish Beginners II understand jokes in Spanish? Or at least understand that I’m trying to be funny and laughter is expected.

Teaching languages is very rewarding. Even though you get to answer the endless “And how do you say…” questions.

Ever Mainard

~ Clarissa ~ 2 Comments

I just got forwarded this funny video of a stand-up performance by a really talented comedian. I don’t know the comedian or the person who sent me the video but I’m flattered that somebody thinks I have a sense of humor.

Here it is:

What’s a Blog?

~ Clarissa ~ 21 Comments

A student of mine failed to do her lab assignment because she has no idea how a blog works. I sent students to a blog by a prominent Cuban blogger but this student had no idea what a “blog post” was and how to choose one for a reading assignment.

It is especially ironic that the student approached me to inform me about this while I was posting comments on my blog.

I consider people who don’t read blogs to be very strange.

My student explained that she doesn’t read blogs because “Twitter is so much better.”

My Mother Taught Me Meme

~ Clarissa ~ 12 Comments

I thought everybody was familiar with this brilliant old meme, but I just discovered there are people who aren’t, so I’m posting it here. Since it’s a very old meme, I added a few of my own lines to spice it up. If you read it and have no idea what it is about, color yourself very lucky.

My mother taught me to believe in God: “Just pray your father doesn’t hear about this!”

My mother taught me to think logically: “Because I said so, that’s why.”

My mother taught me about eating disorders: “You will not leave the table until you finish what’s on your plate.”

My mother taught me not to be envious: “There are millions of kids in the world who’d kill to have such parents as yours.”

My mother taught me to face the future: “Just wait until I get home!”

My mother taught me the basics of self-healing: “If you don’t stop squinting, your eyes will stay stuck this way for good.”

My mother taught me how to be a mind reader: “Put on your hat! I know you are cold.”

My mother taught me to fit in: “Why can’t you be like normal kids?”

My mother taught me about self-esteem: “You are such a disappointment.”

My mother taught me to believe in myself: “I told you it wasn’t going to work.”

My mother taught me about love: “What do you see in this guy?”

My mother taught me the basics of genetics: “You turned out as bad as your father.”

My mother taught me about history: “When I was your age, I never disappointed my parents this way.”

My mother taught me how to grow up: “If you don’t eat vegetables, you’ll never grow up.”

My mother taught me to make friends: “I knew this new kid you are hanging out would be a bad influence on you!”

My mother taught me the love of learning: “I’ll buy it for you but only if you get a good grade in physics.”

My mother taught me to appreciate art: “Your music is giving me a head-ache.”

My mother taught me to anticipate the future: “You’ll understand this when you grow up.”

My mother taught me to dream: “I wish I had a kid who was more like my friend Anna’s son.”

My mother taught me about justice: “I hope your kids treat you as bad as you are treating your mother.”