About a year ago, a group of forward-thinking graduate students at Indiana University hatched a plan for a conference. They wanted to bring folklorists at all stages of their careers* together to discuss the future of the discipline. Shortly after, the planning for FOAF began. This week, one hundred plus folklorists converged on Bloomington. From …
Field School Boot Camp
The field school started on Monday, May 18, 2016. It's a small group this year, 9 students (the smallest so far) of dedicated students who know what they want to get out of the field school experience. It's a perfect combination of age, experience, and diversity.This is also the first year that I've taught …
Real Innovation, Not Corporate Modeling
Some VA schools are recreating the idea of the university, not trying to fit it into the corporate model
If your institution has implemented RCM budgeting, you know that one of the main casualties of the model is interdisciplinary studies, especially across colleges. And given that most cutting-edge innovation is coming out of just those kinds of interdisciplinary study, the corporate management model is actually undermining one of the most significant ways in which university research might feed economic development.
Writing for the Roanoke Times, Robby Korth has reported on Virginia Tech’s significant commitment to developing not just interdisciplinary programs but interdisciplinary “areas” of study in which very innovative teaching, learning, research, and scholarship will be fostered. And it is hard to see how this approach will not benefit the more traditional disciplines within the university since most of them will contribute in some way to the work being done within new areas of study.
Here are the opening paragraphs of Korth’s article, describing the major elements of…
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“How to Write Killer Flash Fiction” (by Tara Laskowski)
Tara Laskowski is the author of the short story collections Bystanders and Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons. She has been the editor of SmokeLong Quarterly since 2010, and her flash fiction has… Source: "How to Write Killer Flash Fiction" (by Tara Laskowski)
Tenure Weakened in Wisconsin
The AAUP issued this statement today after the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents adopted a new policy weakening tenure protections. Tenure in Wisconsin It is now clear that the Univer… Source: Tenure Weakened in Wisconsin
In the Black: A Memoir of Coal Mining
I discovered Gary Bentley's serialized memoir, In the Black, through the podcast of Inside Appalachia. It's a deeply moving, often shocking memoir of his work in a deep coal mine in Kentucky. There are few real-life accounts that offer this type of insight into the daily lives of miners. We can only hope that Bentley …
The Latest & Greatest in Ethnography: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
From today's Book World in The Washington Post: Thank you, Matthew Desmond. Thank you for writing about destitution in America with astonishing specificity yet without voyeurism or judgment. Thank you for showing it is possible to compose spare, beautiful prose about a complicated policy problem. Thank you for giving flesh and life to our squabbles …
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Arlington Community Gardens
Last weekend I began fieldwork for the Summer 2016 Field School. I'm back along the Columbia Pike, this time studying community gardens along Four Mile Run and Douglas Park. The project stretches me in new and exciting ways. I'm an avid "urban farmer"--I cleared the azaleas alongside my house to create three 8X10 garden beds. …
For the Queens and Kings of Appalachia
Source: For the Queens and Kings of Appalachia
The Field School 2016
Today I begin the first field visit to prepare for the 2016 Field School for Cultural Documentation. I'll be working with Community Gardens in Arlington County. I grew up on a farm, so the idea of a kitchen garden makes sense to me. I tore out landscaping around my house to exploit the only sunny …
Living Ethnography 