Tuesday, January 13, 2004
(4:35 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
(Miscellaneous)
Via the very active comment thread on this post of Jared's, I have discovered that DePaul University is calling for papers for its upcoming graduate conference. I project that I will be finished with the Phenomenology by the end of this week, at which point I will begin to develop an abstract (or maybe an entire paper) about Hegel and Lacan. I can't get enough of pseudo-intellectual posturing (i.e., continental philosophy; link via Chun the Unavoidable). I would give you more details, but I do not want any of you jackasses to plagiarize me and get all the glory of participating in a graduate student conference using my idea.
In other news, Salon (I recommend going there, getting the Day Pass, then returning here to follow the upcoming link) has a very good story about the way the mainstream media allows itself to be manipulated by the conservative press. Those "liberal media" accusations have been reaping the conservatives ever-increasing dividends.
Invisible Adjunct has an interesting discussion going about the meaning behind the surprisingly high attrition rates among PhD candidates. Most disturbing is this comment from Chris (#15):
Actually, I'm far enough removed from grad. school that I can't really even imagine what sorts of people are in grad. programs these days. I mean, given the job situation, or rather, the lack thereof, who is going to grad. school in the humanities?
Does theology count as one of the "humanities"? I mean, given the Incarnation, it technically should, but does it? As a sidenote, if I decided that I would rather not devote my life to (the study of) Christ, one of my main options would be comparative literature, which is well known for having probably The Worst job-placement rate in the industry. (Continental philosophy is probably not much better, although Catholic universities do represent a nice niche for people with that specialty--I'd probably be a sure bet for one of those positions, since I'm Catholic and there are so few Catholics in the world [kind of like how every time one of my Nazarene friends meets a Catholic girl, they think I should date her, since we'd have so much in common since we're both Catholics, just like one out of every six people in the entire world].) I wonder if comparative literature would do better as a discipline if it changed its name to Intertextual Studies, or even better, if the individual departments restructured in such a way that they could call themselves, for example, The Edward Said Institute for Advanced Intertextual Studies.
I just realized that that hypothetical name was unconsciously modelled on "The Rush Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies." I hang my head in shame.
Finally, I found this Crooked Timber post's comment thread to be very interesting -- it brought out aspects of the conquest of the Americas that I had never even thought to ask about, including the experience of Native Americans in Canada and the Tierra del Fuego. If you're looking for an interesting, informed discussion, you could do worse than to go to Crooked Timber and look for a post with a lot of comments.
UPDATE: How could I forget? No link round-up would be complete without today's modern classic from Adam Robinson.
