Weekend Reading: Summer Institute Edition

This weekend, the AAUP has its Summer Institute at San Diego State University. It’s a training session, mostly for collective bargaining units. This year’s highlight: an epic workshop on “understanding university financial statements.”

First rule: Ignore budgets. (Second rule: When looking for money, no need to check under “instruction.”) Focus on audited financial reports. Hey…is that coffee?

Here are five links to start off the weekend:

• Daniel Paul O’Donnell explains the urgency of technological education for humanities scholars: If the scholar who hires a student or asks for advice from their university’s technical services does not know in broad terms what they want or what the minimum technological standards of their discipline are, they are likely to receive advice and help that is at best substandard and perhaps even counter-productive.
• Mike Caulfield offers up–hypothetically–the most terrifying (but still instructive) Facebook app imaginable. Excerpting would only spoil it.
• Tired of the hype over e-books? Try the Bookavore’s “e-books article drinking game.”
• Elisabeth Pain explains how academics, particularly scientists, can influence public policy: Policymakers have to often make decisions right now, and most of them don’t know much science. So “help them understand,” Dally says. Bear in mind your interlocutor’s needs and concerns and be clear about what your research can contribute to the debate. Avoid jargon and be concise and to the point. Also make sure you come with an open mind and listen carefully, Jasanoff adds. All your efforts will make “the whole process much easier in the long run because policymakers are going to have to go on and relay and translate that message to their colleagues,” Dally says.
• To teach her students about the ways gender is constructed, Kelly J. Baker endures what must be a harrowing class: Students shouted comments ranging from flattery to obscenity at me, and frankly, I am amazed that I continued to do this teaching practice. It truly is not for the faint of heart. Most people don’t have their gender performances scrutinized by 50+ students, at least not in such an open and obvious way. (Via Michael J. Altman on Twitter.)

Po Bronson explains both how to learn the practice/discipline of creativity, and why that might be particularly challenging for academics:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

[Image of Indiana Jones on a Tom Bihn bag by me / Creative Commons licensed]