Believe me, as someone struggling to craft a [ahem] 'damn dissertation' prospectus, I can relate far more than I would like to admit to the conceptual agonizing that this poor beaver is going through. Read more about Dennis Messner, a self-described "integration-minded postmodernist" beaver here: Beaver Overthinking Dam.
As for me, I'm off to see Slavoj Zizek speak at the U of C campus, but then must return to work and stop "treading water." Don't want to end up stuck in the mud like ol' Dennis has the past few years.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Yes, I'm Here for the Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Photo of the Day #
... is Dr. Hegel available?
Actually, I don't believe that DBT has anything to do with the Absolute Knowing described in The Phenomenology of Spirit and I doubt 'The Awakening' employs any Lacanian psychoanalysts.
Nonetheless, in an attempt to help the New Agers whom I presume run this 'clinic' reach the truth through error, I would like to bring Slavoj Zizek here and have him present himself as a client seeking their services.
Would this not make a fabulous reality show?
Neil Young Sings "Let's Impeach the President"
It's good to hear that Neil Young still has a heart of gold. If I recall correctly, he endorsed Reagan, at least for a time, back in the '80s, but redeemed himself by taking aim at Bush the elder in the classic rock anthem "Rockin' in the Free World." (1989). Truth be told, it seems as though the song is older than that, which only goes to show I'm aging. The "We got a thousand points of light/For the homeless man/ We got a kinder, gentler/ Machine gun hand" line definitely dates it a George the 1st-era tune.
The next lines, though, fit just as well today, with Big Oil again running the country: "We got department stores and toilet paper/ Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer/ Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive/ Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive."
If I were singing the song, I'd change "department stores and toilet paper" to "Wall Mart stores and... buried Nader" and substitute "styrofoam boxes" to "SUVs 'n' Hummers." Jeff, maybe the next time we get to see each other you can get out the gee-tar & humor me.
But the reason I've got Neil Young on the brain, and on the stereo (a 1987 live bootleg that I picked up in Italy), is that the man is about to release Living with War, a new LP which includes a song for Dubya. The song's titled Let's Impeach the President.Could this be the Indedpendence Day anthem of '06?
After treatment for a brain aneurysm in 2005, it appears as though Young is recovering well. He certainly has been busy. He released Praisrie Wind last year and now Living with War. I wonder if a brush with death inspired him to write some anti-Bush-regime protest rock?
Perhaps the Dead Kennedys could redo "Let's Lynch the Landlord" with lyrics updated to better reflect the realities of Dubya's 'ownership society'?
The next lines, though, fit just as well today, with Big Oil again running the country: "We got department stores and toilet paper/ Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer/ Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive/ Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive."
If I were singing the song, I'd change "department stores and toilet paper" to "Wall Mart stores and... buried Nader" and substitute "styrofoam boxes" to "SUVs 'n' Hummers." Jeff, maybe the next time we get to see each other you can get out the gee-tar & humor me.
But the reason I've got Neil Young on the brain, and on the stereo (a 1987 live bootleg that I picked up in Italy), is that the man is about to release Living with War, a new LP which includes a song for Dubya. The song's titled Let's Impeach the President.Could this be the Indedpendence Day anthem of '06?
After treatment for a brain aneurysm in 2005, it appears as though Young is recovering well. He certainly has been busy. He released Praisrie Wind last year and now Living with War. I wonder if a brush with death inspired him to write some anti-Bush-regime protest rock?
Perhaps the Dead Kennedys could redo "Let's Lynch the Landlord" with lyrics updated to better reflect the realities of Dubya's 'ownership society'?
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Media Policies and Media Reform
Course descriptions for the Fall 2006 semester are due tomorrow, which meant I had to commit myself to a topic for the Composition II class that I'll be teaching. It's been a few semesters since I've taught comp, and I plan to do quite an overhaul on the way I organize the course. I'll be cutting down on the reading (which is hard to do since most students generally come with less background knowledge than one would hope) and placing more emphasis on the writing. I'm hoping that my daily use of rhetorical templates, as advocated by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein in They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing
will help students to process the course material more thoroughly and enable them to generate ideas and structure their thoughts more coherently.
I'd like to have my students maintain blogs for the class, but will not do so unless I can get my class moved to a computer lab.
In my opinion teaching composition is the most difficult assignment one can get working in an English Department. Naturally, then, the task is generally passed along to graduate students and adjunct faculty, whom we all know are not well compensated for their efforts.
Strike up the band: "No-body said it was ea-saaaay..."
Course # 22418 ENGL 161 TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Rasmussen, Eric Dean
Course Title: Media Policies and Media Reform
The disciplinary focus of this class is media studies, with an emphasis on analyzing contemporary U.S. media policies and practices. We will be examining how the media system works in the United States and why, in the interest of democracy, academics and activists are calling for citizens to play a greater role in shaping the corporate dominated media sphere. To learn more about the course topic, visit mediaproblem.org and www.freepress.net.
I’ve designed this class to teach you to conduct college-level research and to write intelligently about your findings. At the macro level, you will focus on learning the basics of the craft of research, or writing analytically. That is, having surveyed a range of material on a general topic, media studies, you will then select a narrower sub-topic and independently conduct research on it. Your research project will require you to frame a relevant research question, locate source materials, marshal evidence, construct arguments, and craft a polished 10-page report.
At the micro level, you will focus on mastering the rhetorical forms that structure strong academic and argumentative writing. For each class reading you will be asked to identify the rhetorical moves that the text’s author uses to organize his or her argument. Then, with the aid of templates, you will deploy these same rhetorical moves in your own writing. With regular practice and concentrated effort, you will find that an awareness of these rhetorical moves enables you not only to comprehend better the texts you read but also to generate new ideas and enter into ongoing conversations. In short, you will become a more sophisticated reader, writer and thinker.
Students in this class will need to access and print out online materials regularly. To enroll, you must have daily access to the Internet and a printer.
will help students to process the course material more thoroughly and enable them to generate ideas and structure their thoughts more coherently. I'd like to have my students maintain blogs for the class, but will not do so unless I can get my class moved to a computer lab.
In my opinion teaching composition is the most difficult assignment one can get working in an English Department. Naturally, then, the task is generally passed along to graduate students and adjunct faculty, whom we all know are not well compensated for their efforts.
Strike up the band: "No-body said it was ea-saaaay..."
Course # 22418 ENGL 161 TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Rasmussen, Eric Dean
Course Title: Media Policies and Media Reform
The disciplinary focus of this class is media studies, with an emphasis on analyzing contemporary U.S. media policies and practices. We will be examining how the media system works in the United States and why, in the interest of democracy, academics and activists are calling for citizens to play a greater role in shaping the corporate dominated media sphere. To learn more about the course topic, visit mediaproblem.org and www.freepress.net.
I’ve designed this class to teach you to conduct college-level research and to write intelligently about your findings. At the macro level, you will focus on learning the basics of the craft of research, or writing analytically. That is, having surveyed a range of material on a general topic, media studies, you will then select a narrower sub-topic and independently conduct research on it. Your research project will require you to frame a relevant research question, locate source materials, marshal evidence, construct arguments, and craft a polished 10-page report.
At the micro level, you will focus on mastering the rhetorical forms that structure strong academic and argumentative writing. For each class reading you will be asked to identify the rhetorical moves that the text’s author uses to organize his or her argument. Then, with the aid of templates, you will deploy these same rhetorical moves in your own writing. With regular practice and concentrated effort, you will find that an awareness of these rhetorical moves enables you not only to comprehend better the texts you read but also to generate new ideas and enter into ongoing conversations. In short, you will become a more sophisticated reader, writer and thinker.
Students in this class will need to access and print out online materials regularly. To enroll, you must have daily access to the Internet and a printer.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
