Welcome to the fifth installment of navel-gazing with aspirations. Â As noted on day one, the attempt here is to make academic work visible. Â Thus: welcome to the day that some call the middle of the week. Â (If one works on weekends, do weeks have middles? Â Do they have beginnings? Â Do they ever end?) Wednesday, 23…
Continuing my mix of narcissism and public service, I bring you day 4 in this week-long series of just what in the heck a college professor does with his or her time. Â I hope the “public service” element is winning out over the “narcissism” element, but I have my doubts. Â Anyhow, here is… Tuesday, 22…
Continuing this quixotic exercise, here is the third entry (of seven) chronicling One Week in the Life of an English Professor (hi, there!). Â As noted on the first post, the goal is to make visible just what the heck it is someone like me actually does. Â Such labor was invisible to me when I was…
In which we continue the experiment started yesterday – blogging (for this week only) precisely how I spend my time as a Professor of English at Kansas State University. One goal is to demystify exactly what it is that professors do. Sunday, 20 Feb. 2011. 12:35 – 7:55 am. Â Asleep 7:55 – 8:10 am. Â Checked…
Since it’s fashionable in some quarters to attack state employees as lazy (Hello, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker!), I am – for this coming week only – blogging about precisely how I spend my time, as a Professor of English at Kansas State University. Â I’m also doing this because, when I was an undergraduate, I had…
Academically adrift? Nonsense. The real story is that humanities majors learn more.
The sequel (or prequel?) to “How to Publish Your Book,” here’s something else they don’t always teach you in graduate school. As in that earlier post, this is what has worked for me. Results may vary. Please note: the advice below derives from my experience as an English professor who specializes in children’s literature.  This…
A number of folks at MLA 2011 were kind enough to mention that they’ve found my “advice” postings useful. Â In the hopes of continuing to help, here’s one more before I veer back to other blog topics (children’s literature, comics, biography, music, etc.). Â Today’s topic is: how do you develop a robust CV quickly? As…
In yesterday’s post, I skipped past the actual getting of the job. (Oops.) Today, I’ll talk about that. Oh, but enough about me. What do you think of me? – old joke 4. To Market, to Market, to Get Me a Job In 1999, I had three interviews. The first was pleasant enough. The second was…
MLA’s coming up later this week. Can you bear to read yet another advice column? If not, then you may want to skip the following personal narrative that, yep, includes some advice (well, inasmuch as my personal example may be instructive… which it may not be). You may ask yourself: well, how did I get…
