Tobacco Talk: How to Share Your Research
Just puffand aim a beamof smoke at nothingbut the fact of satisfaction …What seems a treasurein this world is notfor us to measure.Sometimes it’s quiteenough to marvelat a dream that turnedmere leaves into a pleasure.– Samuel Hazo, “When the Evening Gets Down to Cigars”Occasional verse delivered at a meeting of the Rascals, Rogues, and Rapscallions. The students in my honors class are finishing…
This week I introduce my students to critique as we read depictions of smoking together.
Those, who deliberately inhale this noxious poison, are not putting their talents out to the best advantage, nor are they faithful servants of their Heavenly Master. So much might be said in condemnation of the impure and baneful practice of smoking, that an attempt to grasp the whole subject, would far exceed the limits of this simple Essay. – “Smoke Not” an Essay by Miss E. S. C of the British…
Have you ever asked someone why they smoke? Maybe they’ll say it relaxes them, or that they enjoy it, or that they really just like being able to talk with other smokers. In this post, I explore smoking through Flusser's theory of gestures.
I'm developing a class on the figure of smoking in literature, and I would like to hear what your favorite depictions are.
Imagine Mark Twain. Is he smoking a cigar? Imagine Sherlock Holmes. Is he smoking a fantastically shaped pipe? Our popular imagination of the nineteenth century is filled with depictions of smoking. Even Laura Ingalls Wilder’s virtuous Pa would ride into town for some tobacco. I am fascinated by the way the figure of tobacco and smoking works in texts. Does the smoke in the air visualize bonds…
#TheWheelOfTime books are all about cultural adaptation and reception of the past, and so is @TheWheelOfTime. #TwitterOfTime
Darrell K. Sweet’s original cover compared to the promotional poster for the show There’s been some consternation over the recent Wheel of Time adaptation. It’s come to the point that there are even warring hashtags about #BookCloaks and #ShowSworn! https://twitter.com/TheMatCauthon/status/1474324651480432648 I get it–any adaptation will lead to hard feelings for folks who have spent so much…
Why I Care about Public Scholarship
My wife and I were chatting with some ranchers who are engaged in holistic management. It was exciting to hear how their work with cattle was affecting their land and their transition from conventional to regenerative farming. During the conversation, it came out that they’ve felt like researchers would never listen to them. But they shared that there was a local soil scientist who did listen.…
A Pedagogy of Care for Our Online Neighbors
I recently gave a talk on pedagogies of care in the online classroom that I would like to share with all of you. With everything our students and fellow educators have gone through the past year, I think we need to dig down to the heart of education and rethink how we build community together. Living the Community of Care Model Online. Introduction Think about the last time you watched Mr.…
What if we thought about our syllabus as a form of communication instead of as a contract?
It’s that class development time of year! Okay, maybe it should be “class revision time of year” or “putting final touches on my class” time of year . . . But teachers are busy, so if you’re writing your syllabus right now, I wanted to share some thoughts on how to use it as a communication tool that speaks directly to your students. This post comes from a tip I wrote for the Teaching Tips…
INKE Partnership Logo, CC BY-NC
Want to engage in public scholarship but don’t know where to start? Already work with public-facing assignments and research but don’t know how that fits into public scholarship?
You’re not alone! I think teachers and researchers hold back from public scholarship because they hold a narrow view of it that doesn’t have room for their own work. Maybe you want…
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Now that my doctoral training is finished and I’ve settled down in sunny South Dakota in my new role in faculty development, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who’s been an important part of the journey.
Let’s start with everyone who’s been a wonderful support, and then get to the airing of grievances for all of you people who know what you did.
A…
If we were having coffee…
I would want to tell you that graduate school is finally over. I finally submitted all my work in July and found out in August that all the paperwork is squared away!
https://twitter.com/Adamson_CW/status/1279634885959913472
I wasn’t completely sure if these weekend coffee blogging parties were still hosted somewhere, and was delighted to find out that Alli…
Did you know that there’s a Victorian conference on poetry, literature, and history that you can watch write now for free?
This past September, the Armstrong Browning Library hosted a flightless conference in partnership with many other sites. The theme was fittingly focused on sustainability: Ecology and Religion in 19th Century Studies.
There were a lot of amazing talks on Gerard Manley…
Welcome to ENG 181: Journeying through Faerie.
You can explore the course more with the following links:
Course Description & Syllabus Conference Presentation Project
Students enter into their roles as knowledge producers in an academic community.
Digital Storytelling Project
Mirroring the fairy tale and romance convention of the hero returning home, students will develop videos…
Fanny Howe is a wonderful poet, novelist, and essayist. You can learn more about her from the Poetry Foundation.
I’ve been reading some of her insights into faith and poetry in her short interview “Footsteps Over Ground” and her longer work The Wedding Dress. I’m amazed by the way she articulates the meaning of and need for liturgy in her poems and essays.
There are questions I ask about…
We’ve have another busy year! Our daughter is walking and talking and…scattering her toy dinosaurs all over the house…
And since last summer, I’ve been working on my dissertation, looking at the ways Victorians relate to the medieval past through liturgy. Whether Anglicans, dissenters, or agnostics, they’re using tons of liturgical allusions.
And I turned in another chapter just before Christmas:
I’m not sure what that goat’s doing either…(Okay, it’s Capricorn). December from the Isabela Breviary
With Advent starting and the Christmas season following it, it’s time to think about all the overlap between literature and liturgy.
Sometimes a liturgy will take central place in a novel, such as the baptism in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles or the wedding at the end of any marriage plot.…
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Want to learn more about poetry and not sure where to start? Just beginning graduate school and trying to get your head around the state of the research? Or just want to get to know the people researching and writing about Victorian poetry?
Then you need to check out the Victorian Poetry Caucus coming out of the North American Victorian Studies Association.
A…
Kalenderes enlumined been they That in this world been lighted with thy name – Chaucer’s “Priere a Nostre Dame”
Chaucer can be hard to pin down. At many points, we can ask ourselves “Is he serious?” or “Is this all an elaborate parody?” At other, darker times we may question if he really was “evere . . . wemenis friend,” as Gavin Douglas put it, or a misogynist. Even the God of Love has his…
Br. Monday, OD
Br. Monday has been through quite a bit over the years. First, he spent some time with the Desert Fathers, until there was an unfortunate barbarian incident. Then he found the Thelemites, and thought he had joined the perfect order (for him). But that didn’t work out. Now he’s decided to found his own order of hermits, the Domesticans.
Defined by Mikhail Epstein, a domestican is…
