yourself an academic

…it's been a while since we rolled out Omnivore's succulent & succinctly annotated links for a virtual visit to the Reading Room, which I've noticed that it is not the most popular NewFac chez Facebook item, hence dropping the tag from the title. I don't doubt that those who do click through will be pleasantly surprised, even delighted. 

A new issue of Academe is out, including Thomas P. Miller on the academy as a public works project; and Marc Bousquet on how we are all Roman porn stars now: Are we fighting the good fight through our service or just creating a spectacle of super-exploitation? The university as welfare state: Paula Marantz Cohen on why you should want kooks teaching your kids. 

Reading Room: Omnivore's Choice

…sans explanatory or exculpatory head note of substance, a bit dated  (the last one was more recent). Trying to get back on daily post regimen (bless you Bill and Alan), resorting to working my way through hitherto neglected drafts. Joe latest COCAL Updates were on the schedule for today, but they take rather a bit of reformatting and link checking and I passed my coherence timeline before getting to them. Tomorrow maybe. Also simmering: a piece on injustices and not forgetting them when they drop below the fold or off the monitor. Looking after and calling attention to individual injustices matters as much if not more than surveys, participating in studies, conferences and strategic alliances. Save a life and save the world. 

From THES, Alan Ryan on the faith in education that inspired “Great Books” collections. From Slate, which pop culture property do academics study the most? Bound for glory: A look at academic terms misused and overused in popular vernacular. From TLS, a review of Debates in the Digital Humanities. 

Reading Room: Omnivore on highered, academic publishing, online ed & more

Outlets for scholarly work

From the Village Voice's Education Supplement, a special issue on bursting the tuition bubble. The Occupy movement took hold at some campuses, and students are still holding their ground— but how strong is their will? A look at what the Top 1% of earners majored in. Every year, JSTOR turns away 150 million attempts to read journal articles (and more). Rather than restricting access to publicly funded scientific research, the rule should be — if taxpayers paid for it, they own it. Clever people have figured out that there is a growing demand for outlets for scholarly work; as a result, there has been a proliferation of new publishers offering new journals in every imaginable field. Kill peer review or reform it: It's only a matter of time before people rise up against the conventions of traditional journal publishing. Richard Price, founder of Academia.edu, on the future of peer review. Felix Salmon on Udacity and the future of online universities (and part 2). What you (really) need to know: The digital age has changed more than how we learn — it’s changed what we need to learn. Blogs vs. Term Papers: To raves and rants, blogging has become a requirement in everything from MBA to literature courses.

Shamelessly reposted in toto from Omnivore, the Book Forum blog. Best and smartest, eclectic curated collections of annotated links. Want more, from a cross section of popular and scholarly sources and on a variety of topics? Head on over, bookmark, subscribe, visit regularly.

Editing Update & Call for Submissions

Jeanette Jeneault, Syracuse University, writes...

I've been planning on sending out a notice about sections and deadlines for the anthology tentatively titled Contingent Faculty Researching Contingent Faculty. We have collected about 10 abstracts ~ and have not forgotten any of you. 

To date, there are sections on: 

• Academic Freedom
• Women and Contingency
• Evaluation Practices
• Online Teaching Related Issues
• Alternatives to Tenure

Each section containing chapters and offers poetry, photographs, and personal stories to intermix ~ good lead offs to sections. Marc Bousquet has offered to write a forward, and Marcia Neufield to be my co-editor. 

Any who still want to contribute or edit, just send me a quick note. Submission schedule:

• Proposal already submitted: first drafts, January 15, 2010
• Not submitted? Last chance for proposals / abstracts is January 15,2010
• Second drafts, March 15, 2010
• Final drafts, June 15, 2010

It is not too late to join the Contingent Faculty Researching Contingent Faculty project. Sections can be added depending on interest and submissions. I would like to add one on working conditions or something similar. Also let me know if you have changes your topic or abstract.

October was extremely busy for me, but I will have more time especially in December and January to devote to this. Also, we have been offered help finding a publisher, and of course, all proceeds will go to The New Faculty Majority.

This book will be a labor of love...and a stand of truth.

Please join us ~ Jeanette Jeneault, email jjeneaul@gmail.com, Syracuse University

Ominvore visits the academic workplace

A collection of annotated (best kind) links to book reviews, essays, online articles, blog posts... all in one place for your reading convenience.

From Workplace, a review of The University Against Itself: The NYU Strike and the Future of the Academic Workplace by Monika Krause, Mary Nolan, Michael Palm, and Andrew Ross. Clive Bloom sheds few tears for Middlesex's strangely underpopulated philosophy department — or any other corners of an academy short on recruits and long overdue for the axe. Breaking out of the academy may seem daunting, but scholars' skills transfer to many other jobs. Teachers without technology strike back: Many professors don't find that the latest technology helps their students learn. In the conversation about ebooks and academe, the distance from cup to lip is great and involves many challenges. Geoffrey Nunberg on why Google's Book Search is a disaster for scholars. Open peer review in humanities journals: Is an experiment by Shakespeare Quarterly the shape of things to come? The Internet is calling into question one of academia’s sacred rites — the peer-reviewed journal article (and more). If it doesn’t exist on the internet, it doesn’t exist; as time has gone on, it’s proved to be a truism, perhaps the paradigmatic truism of our times. Finishing School: Christopher Beam on the case for getting rid of tenure. Never mix, never worry: Here is a brief (and incomplete) history of the academic couple. Hot at their own risk: Professors seen as very good-looking can be cast by colleagues and their students as lightweights, known less for their productivity than for their pulchritude.

The academic workplace, reposted from the Bookforum's aptly named blog, Omnivore