Critical theory, critical culture, & postmodern humanism
The epiphanies abound now that I am in the classroom again. In my last post, I talked about the terms academic writing, argumentative writing, and critical writing. I explained that I meant “critical writing” not in the sense of writing Continue reading Contextual Knowledge
In my previous post, I said I had intended to write about an epiphany I had after teaching my first session of English 101, English Composition, at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), but instead I got bogged down in Continue reading Critical Writing? Tune in Next Semester!
I returned to the front of the classroom today after six years in abeyance, teaching my first session of my first section of English 101 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). It was fun. I’m already thinking about Continue reading Still Pedagogish After all These Years
Once upon a time, I was sitting around a Fordham University seminar table in a graduate class on the Roman satirist Juvenal, who lived and wrote in the second century A.D. The professor, an adorable grandfatherly man named Harry Evans, Continue reading Camping It Up in Ancient Rome: A Queer Take on Catullus 16
As Rich Juzwiak points out on Gawker, this week’s RuPaul’s Drag Race featured the best celebrity impersonation in the history of what has now become an annual Drag Race event, the much-anticipated Snatch Game challenge. But Jinkx Monsoon‘s brilliant impersonation Continue reading Drag Queen Culture Divide: RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 Snatch Game
Seth MacFarlane’s performance as host of the Oscars failed less because of racism, sexism, and homophobia than because he forgot what satire is and how it works. The same could be said of the beleaguered Onion staffer who misfired the Continue reading Seth, Oscar, and Antiquity: The Fine (and Endangered) Art of Making Mockery
In a nutshell: While critical thinking implies certain intellectual values such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, it does not come prepackaged with political, ethical, or moral values. If we want critical thinking to be an instrument of a liberatory politics, Continue reading Critical thinking: what I mean by it, what I want from it
In a nutshell: Among the postmodern humanities, creative writing stands out as a field where teachers are generally active practitioners of the craft they teach. I invited poet Ada Limón to discuss the permeable boundary between her teaching and her Continue reading The Lighthouse: Structure in the Storm
In a nutshell: This short interview with veteran AIDS activist Peter Staley is a good introduction to the Oscar-nominated documentary, How to Survive a Plague, and to the way Act Up invented a new kind of direct action that transformed Continue reading How to change a culture (Act Up)
In a nutshell: February 11 marked 50 years since poet Sylvia Plath killed herself. Her posthumously published book of poems, Ariel, was a landmark of the new confessional poetry that helped change the face of contemporary verse. This audio piece Continue reading Sylvia Plath, 50 years later