Finds Them and Kills Them: Mirrors of Masculinity and Violence
Earlier in the spring semester, I was doing a fairly standard discussion on cross-cultural gender diversity in order to illustrate the constructed character of gender. Like a greatest hits of...
View ArticleDiscarded Bagels and Bags
Every once in awhile, different threads of teaching randomly come together and generate new understandings and ways to communicate to students. In this post, I’ll describe how I found myself weaving...
View ArticleHoly Semiosis, Batman!
Obvious, isn't it?This morning, my four year old son was deep into a shadow puppet performance of some kind of robot-on-Joker conflict, when he noticed an unexpected shadow of a small, toy dalmatian...
View ArticleGroan....
Driving to work this morning, the radio was filled with examinations of Paul Ryan's budget proposals. His focus on individualism and his disdain for any kind of meaningful social support systems...
View ArticleRobin's Lament: the Semiotic Limits of a Little Brother
Yesterday, my youngest son reached his second birthday. In his honor, I’m following up Holy Semiosis, Batman! with this brief addition. Really though, the real reason i'm writing this post is that...
View ArticleThinking About Course Readings, Fall 2012
Since it’s back to school time, I’m reviewing my syllabi in preparation for getting the semester started. Further, yesterday I read through Jason Antrosio’s review of the reader, Applying Anthropology....
View ArticleEnd of Summer Bummers: Which Way the August Wind Blows
In addition to teaching, I've been working as a department chair for the past two years. Just this semester, I've gotten used to the hectic pace of the first couple weeks of the semester. My main...
View ArticleNewbie Preconceptions: How 101 Views Anthropology
I spent my last post bemoaning the canceling of some anthropology sections and pondering if better public branding would help. Keeping with such marketing-inspired thinking, I attempted some focus...
View ArticleEarly Semester Formless Monsters
In 101 courses, I have consistently run into problems getting across the importance of symbols in anthropology, and human life in general. In an “aha” moment that I wish would have hit me long ago, I...
View ArticleConsidering Context: Biographies of Violence and Non-Violence
Blogging sure happens in fits and starts. The many distractions (teaching and administrative) of the fall semester put a quick end to my post-prolific August. Much of the time at work, I feel like a...
View ArticlePost-Storm Thoughts: Seeing How the Other Half Lives
I live and work in the suburban counties surrounding NYC, so I’m currently living with some of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Compared to many in the region, I’m doing quite well...my home has...
View ArticleSpring's Looking Up
I've hit another one of those extended lulls in posting, so here's a quick one to get things moving again. In a bit of a sequel/update to a post from the beginning of Fall 2012, I'm reporting on...
View ArticlePuns and Meaning Making
One of the common interests my father and I shared was an appreciation of puns. To my family’s annoyance, I’ve maintained that interest over the years. Such a set of interests, means that some amount...
View ArticleScattered Thinking
I've just crested the hill of grading a set of essays from an online class and need some distraction. Here are some fragments of thoughts occupying my attention on this overcast morning as I wait on...
View ArticleMonday Night Single Parenting
Another post in the continuing theme of "woe is me," but "woe much more to those more unlucky than me."My spouse is a CRM archaeologist and is currently in the field about four hours from home. This...
View ArticleHey, that's why I teach too
I just came across a New York Times opinion piece from yesterday's paper in which Notre Dame philosophy professor, Gary Gutting, describes what teaching (and in that case, learning) in college is all...
View ArticleLeveling and Non-Leveling Mechanisms
As is my M.O. on this blog, this post is partly inspired (positive peer pressure) by a recent tweet by Jason Antrosio pointing readers to an older post of his that reflects on the use of Shakespeare in...
View ArticleRaising Kids, Gender and Notes to the Teacher
Earlier today, I was fortunate enough to run across the Twitter account for GOP Teens. While for a few moments, I thought the site genuine...a more detailed look revealed its satirical posture. In...
View ArticlePervasive Word Choices
Every once and again I hear a word that I want to incorporate more frequently into my own vocabulary. These aren't always terribly high falutin' words, just ones that I like the phonetics of. For...
View ArticleTime Travel Blues
For me, the Afghan Whigs were always that band. They’re one of the few that I have consistently listened to since 1994. I bet I haven’t gone more than three months during that time without playing one...
View ArticleTeachable Moment, Cultural Exasperation
I had to get the news late. Earlier this week, a student responded to a question about what nationalism was. Her take was what I thought better termed patriotism...pride in a nation-state and belief in...
View ArticleThree Beards, Social Theory and the Apocalypse
Maybe there's something to the beards. I've found that Will Forte's new show, Last Man on Earth has some basic elements from foundational sociology and anthropology that could be good teaching tools....
View ArticlePast, Present, Future; Afterlives and Meaning
My last post reminded me of a 2013 Opinionator piece from the New York Times. I'm going to quote at length because it's provocative and consistently bounces around my head a year and a half after I...
View ArticleWhite Man's Shame
Driving into work this morning, I heard Michel Martin's piece on how black men in the US experience the social fact that many of those around them fear them. To the point that one panelist noted how...
View ArticleLittle Black Panther
What special little snowflakes white people are. A couple of weeks ago, my six year old son (the one who is pictured on the banner for this site at one year old) excitedly donned his new Black Panther...
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