I was not expecting this post to get so much attention, but I think my dad would’ve appreciated it. I don’t have a SoundCloud to plug, so here’s a picture of us together taken the summer he wrote this note.
Since this is being picked up by media, I should say: my dad's name is Rick Clukey. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 53 from lung cancer. He has six children. I'm the eldest. My youngest brother Liam found the note. My sister Emily plans on beekeeping when she buys a house.
@akedpa
I planted a pollinator garden and while researching how to set one up I read that bees learn the faces of humans who work around them in the garden and therefore aren't aggressive. So I don't know if they like beekeepers, but they knew his face.
I'm getting a lot of new followers and that's really nice, but y'all are going to be disappointed when I go back to my regular content of academic nerdery, black metal memes, and left-wing politics.
@poshyoshh
My father wrote this when he had terminal lung cancer. It was incredibly hard for him and for all of us who loved him. I wish you the best in the weeks to come.
Ever had students complain in student evals that you didn't wear pants during the semester? Or you wore a leopard print cardigan too often? Or you wore textured tights with your dresses? Or you wore jeans?
I have. Each one of those occurred in separate evals BTW.
@KristaJacobsen
That's amazing. I bought a house during covid and I keep wishing my father was here to do renovations with me. Or rather, to complete 80% of renovations and then leave them unfinished, the way he always did when I was a kid. 😛
Okay, academics, it's about time to start fall syllabi. What are y'all doing next semester to try to decrease the chances AI plagiarism in your classes?
One thing I've noticed in mentoring grad students is that many do not take advantage of opportunities--like this, and others--because they have been so exploited and marginalized that they don't want to bother people, even when people are fine with being "bothered."
I am so fed up with white dudes in academia. 99% of them are living in a big bubble of cozy privilege high in the sky from which they render judgment on the rest of us.
@Chef_life_666
@fugitivephilo
It would indeed. But he also grew organic strawberries, built furniture, drove stick shift, and told incredible stories--as do I, so I follow his lead in other ways.
Don't talk to me about the sexual politics of higher education right now unless you've ever had a current student try to talk to you in public with a visible erection. Or had a student put his hands on you during class to give you a massage. Or, or, or, or, fucking or.
Why don't we talk about EM Forster more? Every time I revisit him, I'm struck anew by how fantastic his novels are, but I can't remember the last time I saw a conference presentation on him.
Academics, do you require that students buy particular editions for your classes? Cheap ones like Dover or Penguin?
I'm sick of students not bringing books to class, reading on screens and retaining nothing, and not being able to refer to pages.
Some of you just sound damn naive when you talk about AI plagiarism, it's astounding. Talk with the student about why felt they couldn't write the paper they wanted to write? Give me a break. Since when is plagiarism about student feelings rather than academic dishonesty.
If I had read this book in grad school it would’ve saved me a lot time/energy of mucking about looking for answers and connections. Better late than never though.
@ceaubin
The romanticization of academia at the historical moment it is most in jeopardy has troubling implications. I'm speculating here, but I think it acts as a cloak for austerity, historical forms of abusive power, and continuing inequity at colleges and universities.
... they also start with a sense of entitlement that allows them to more fully take advantage of opportunities around them, to see opportunities first gen and marginalized scholars can't, and to MAKE opportunities for themselves.
So we're supposed to carry on with our subhuman lives, work our exploitative jobs, underpaid and overworked, struggling to pay for mortagages/rent/groceries/gas/energy/student loans, having babies we can't afford in a world that hates mothers & children.
I just cannot anymore.
Red states and blue states DO NOT EXIST.
The US has a rural-urban divide. Even within that, there are pockets of blue in the red and vice versa.
The "Red States/Blue State" divide isn't just a MAGA/GOP myth. Liberals and Leftists perpetuate it too and it is dangerous.
We need a national divorce.
We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.
Everyone I talk to says this.
From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are
Every night before a day I teach, I slowly devolve into full-blown panic, because I have no idea how I'm going to propel my exhausted body out the front door and through a day's work for the next week.
#longcovid
#academicableism
@AmandaSokal
We planted an apple tree with his ashes, according to his wishes. This is the first year it fruited. So I guess we've got "Rick's apples" now.
It appears that I have triggered quite a few people who are enjoying summer enough to not think about fall syllabi yet. More power to you. I tend to work on mine pretty early.
I'm first gen from a working-class single-parent family of origin, so I get this 1000%. But I'm telling you now that grad students from privileged backgrounds don't just start with an iceberg of knowledge and family money that allows them to navigate academia more easily...
After 15 years of skinny jeans and straight-legged pants, I...think?...I...may?...want to buy some ridiculously wide-legged trousers to wear with fitted dark academia-ish pullovers or blouses?
What do we think, lady professors and fashionable allies?
@derek_novacek
I'm having a hard time listening to this from someone who lives in California and is associated with an elite university. Millions upon millions of people live in anti-choice states, on or off the tenure track, in academia and in other jobs.
Some are mocking literary scholars right now, like our close reading and theorizing novels and poetry is so stupid because it didn't stop Roe from being overturned. Aren't we useless and out of touch?
No. Literature is one place that women get to see themselves as people.
Or if I bring them to dinner at a conference or to do something else, they thank me effusively.
It's nice to be thanked! But you don't need to be grateful, because the more established an academics around you should be informally and formally mentoring you all the time.
I just tested positive for COVID.
I can't begin to express how much despair I feel right now. I am the person who gets made fun of and accused of paranoia. I hardly leave my house. I mask everywhere. I avoid crowds. I am so cautious.
I can't handle this anymore.
Ranty tweeting is what happens when you're stuck in bed too exhausted to move thanks to a disability, but your mind is alert and bored from being stuck in bed all day.
You're welcome, twitterverse.
Disabled academics, I need some basic sources on being a disabled academic to inform myself and center my brain. I have no idea where to start, and could really use some help. Please advise.
I love how people read the idea of assigning hard copies as elitist ableism. I'm first-gen, grew up working class, and disabled, and I give disability accommodations. Save the sanctimony.
Especially in person, because I loathe email.
But things like talking about what journal to send an article to, how to make yourself actually write that chapter when you're depressed as hell, how to approach a senior scholar for a panel, etc etc
That shit I can do in my sleep.
@HelmanDaniel
I'm not interested in debating whether or not we should teach AI to students as a writing tool. My mind is already made up and I'm not encouraging it or allowing it.
Lit people, when you teach a novel, do you type up notes or discussion questions, and then use those every time you teach it? Or do you reread it every term? Or do you just make sure you know it well enough to go into the classroom and cover major points from memory? Or what?
@janineutell
Anyhow, this is all just to say: don't be afraid to "bother" people. The worst that can happen is they say no or they say "I can't right now, but hit me up later."
@ThisIsMarlee
Yes, I demand she be trotted out for my inspection. I live in Kentucky and I insist that she be standing on my front porch by 6pm eastern standard time tonight. Or *else*.
@janineutell
Emerging/marginalized scholars are often the ones undertaking the most cutting edge scholarship, teaching, and political work.
I need to know more about what they're doing, so that I can do good work too. If I'm just waltzing around with tenured people, my work is going to suck.
@derek_novacek
I've worked to be an academic for over 20 years. I've been female and lived in states hostile to women and girls for 40. There's no escape from gendered and sexualized violence in this country, even in states where abortion will remain legal.
I often find that when I volunteer mentoring by telling grad students to let me know if they want to be on a panel with them or sit down for coffee to talk about their work, they don't do it.
@clancynewyork
@adamdavidson
This is particularly galling, because it would've been so easy to actually cite the scholarship. And citing scholarship does not make the writers look smarter. Reading All The Stuff, documenting all the proof, makes writers look smarter.
When it comes to sexism and racism, most academics will at least *pretend* TGAF, but 98% of them act like they've never even heard of disability or ableism and they are stonily outraged if you ask for an accommodation, even if that accommodation is very very minor.
I tried to start a Mastodon account. It was confusing as hell and I wasn't able to. There's waitlists on most of the servers, and the server topics were weird. Who decided this counter-intuitive mess was the best alternative to Twitter?
#Ableism
in academia is so bad that MULTIPLE disabled academics have told me to disguise requests for accommodations as something else--like, pretend it has nothing to do with disability and instead is more convenient or even just a weird quirk of mine that I'm demanding.
@loafstata
@espiers
NY Dem Dads with kids at Vandy, Tulane, or Rice will fly their daughters home to NY to get abortions over spring break. That's why they don't think about consequences--they have the resources to work around them when it comes to their own families.
Because mentoring isn't always a burden or even a lot of work.
Sure, if you want me to be on dissertation committee, that's a ton of work for me. But most mentoring is small and easy for me.
At the same time, as
@janineutell
has articulated so well, mentoring goes both ways. It's not just established scholars like me pontificating and bestowing opportunities (although we can & we have power, no doubt). I get SO MUCH out of knowing and learning from emerging scholars.
If I give you my syllabi, you should borrow from them shamelessly if you want to. If you find my syllabi online (I post some on ), then you should borrow from them shamelessly if you want to.
We shouldn't be inventing wheels. We should be collectivizing.
@MoiraDonegan
The local cops she had to ask for protection were schmoozing with OJ. Domestic violence is often mishandled by the police, but in Nicole's case the cops she reported to were starstruck and literally socializing with her abuser. They didn't just ignore her. They enabled him.
Counterpoint: search committees are positions of power. If you get on one as an early career scholar, you can advocate for the hiring of people share your academic values and appear to be the kind of colleagues you want to work with for the next 25+ years.
As a Floridian, I'm like an iguana that falls out of a tree when the temps dip below 60 and it's supposed to be -5 degrees tonight. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Modernists,
@debraraecohen
and Catherine Keyser are editing a special issue of Modern Fiction Studies called "Women Thinking in Public" and they just put out the CFP. It looks amazing and you should all go read it.
@Nicole_Lee_Sch
I have been to so many doctors about long COVID. They all believe it's real and concur that I'm sick. None of them have offered me any treatments beyond rest and various OTC supplements.
Somehow I'm guessing Wen's going to get a different response.
@KANelson_Actual
@salisbot
Funny coincidence that the "naval" military historians in this thread think the colonization of Palestine is beyond explanation and expertise.
I love how American health culture is like "if you notice something's off, great it checked out by a doctor--catch it early!" Then you call to make an appointment and the receptionist is like "you need ten referrals and there are no appointments until three months from now."
I like edited collections. A good edited collection can be field defining. How about fewer monographs that could just be chapters in an edited collection instead?
Ok academics, real talk - let's not have edited volumes anymore. No one wants a single book with a bunch of tangentially related papers. And they take forever to produce and come out.
@ashtonpittman
I think the infrastructure of Floridian housing contributes to this. Downtowns are dead zones. Almost everyone lives in a suburb or "bedroom community." You have to drive everywhere. It's an isolating way to live and not conducive to activist organizing.
@janineutell
And if someone offers something and you have the time/energy/inclination, DO IT. People usually don't make those offers unless they are genuine.
The
#ADHD
brain is good at: creativity, problem-solving, pattern recognition, intense concentration, intellectual curiosity, the acquisition of random and entertainingly weird historical and cultural facts.
The ADHD brain is not good at: cleaning this damn kitchen.
Looking back, there have been so many times in my career when I haven't pursued something because I didn't feel I was good enough for it, didn't feel entitled to it, didn't want to bother people, or was afraid someone would knock me down for it.
Mentoring isn't just for emerging scholars. We all need mentoring at all stages of our careers. We need it from people at different stages of their careers, but we also need "horizontal" mentoring from peers.
I need to remind myself of that sometimes to make myself go get it.
You're high risk bc of an incurable autoimmune disease. You get COVID. It triggers a flare up of said disease. You get long COVID. You can't tell when symptoms are LC or the disease. Everything hurts. Everyone's sick of hearing you talk about it.
Then you get COVID again.
@tbhallock
Totally. Last semester I had one class with more trad papers (lots of AI plagiarism). In the another I wrote very idiosyncratic ones (such as applying an essay by Sylvia Wynter to Charlotte Perkins Gilman). You can't find that online and AI can't fake its way through.
Possible unpopular opinion: we should ban 4-person panels in which each participant reads a 15 minute paper.
Instead, conferences should accept proposals for panels with 2 people who give 20 min papers that promise to have long generative interactive Q&As with the audience.
@AnnaKrauthamer
This is so atypical for Trader Joe's. They are aggressively friendly most of the time, to the extent that I wish they'd dial it down 30%.
Joann Fabrics, OTOH, has a clerk who has been there for years who clearly hates life and every person she sees. I kind of love her.
I think 90% of academics are nice people or at least decent. But the 10% of assholes and officious sons of bitches keep the rest of us scared and unable to get the resources that are still available to us even in today's neoliberal educational hellscape.
I'm starting to notice a trend in which I have a long workday that is really productive and satisfying, and then the next day I am so physically and cognitively exhausted it's if my brain used up every single scrap of dopamine the day before.
#ADHD
#adhdtwitter
#AcademicTwitter
Big news from the Modernist Studies Association! We're co-hosting a major online symposium, "Difficult of Conversations in Modernist Studies" in collaboration with 4 other modernist scholarly organizations.
More info from an email I sent out to our membership:
@msa_tweets
@latimes
So basically Halina Reijn thinks her audience are using words they don't understand to talk about experiences they've never had?
1. Way to insult your audience.
2. Reijn sounds like SHE has no understanding of socio-economic conditions shaping the lives of Gen Z right now