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Previous "An Academic in America" Columns"Thomas H. Benton," an associate professor of English, offers his take on academic work and life. An Academic in America Sooner or later, students confronted with unappealing work will appear in
their former professors' offices.
An Academic in America Should professors put down roots or remain self-contained — like potted
plants — in anticipation of the next relocation?
An Academic in America
By turning students away from graduate school in the humanities, have I lost
my love for the scholarly life?
An Academic in America
It's hard to tell young people that universities view their idealism and
energy as an exploitable resource.
An Academic in America
The business culture that dominates today's museums has no room for the eccentricities of introverted curators.
An Academic in America
A look at whether student evaluations of teaching can be administered
effectively via the Internet.
An Academic in America
Why are so many artists and writers preoccupied by the so-called demise of
bookish culture?
An Academic in America
A cartload of recent books suggests that it's time to reverse the
customer-service mentality plaguing academe.
An Academic in America
An English professor immerses himself in an emerging field that has already
begun to redefine academic work.
An Academic in America
Should faculty members reveal uncomfortable truths to prospective parents, or should we just try to make the sale?
An Academic in America
Names matter in academe, but how they matter is a complicated question.
An Academic in America
Despite 10 years of reports and rhetoric, the economic conditions of academic labor are considerably worse.
An Academic in America
It's time to abandon the graduate career-services office and consult an astrologer.
An Academic in America
After gaining tenure and losing 40 pounds, a professor gives himself a fashion makeover.
An Academic in America
If you teach a few hundred students a year, it seems only a matter of time before you run into a dangerous one.
An Academic in America
Tenured and solidly middle class, a professor seldom feels he is giving anything back to his working-class roots.
An Academic in America
Repeat to yourself, "I am too cool to be a professor, I am too cool to be a professor."
An Academic in America
All too often, students learn the hard way that education, like the stock market, is built on speculation.
An Academic in America
Is there anything shameful about a professor using commercial products to develop course material?
An Academic in America
While cherishing the material culture of books, an English professor nonetheless sees some distinct advantages to online sources.
An Academic in America
When it comes to writing, the best office is one that offers no realistic possibility of improvement.
An Academic in America
Just as we help new students acquire writing and reading skills, we must spend more time teaching them how to behave in a classroom.
An Academic in America
There are lots of ways of being a writer, just as there are lots of ways of being a reader.
An Academic in America
Sure, his college has a fine utilitarian collection, but what he really longs for are the tactile pleasures of a great university library.
An Academic in America
The association's latest report seeks to aid a segment of the academic work force that has the least to worry about.
An Academic in America
What happens to "diversity" when it loses its oppositional stance and becomes a ritual profession of faith?
An Academic in America
Once you have tenure, it's time to make a conscious effort to step out of the usual groove of your career.
An Academic in America
An English professor who would have been a scientist, but for the physics, laments the push-button, plush-toy mentality of today's museums.
An Academic in America
A father's passing leads an English professor to seek comfort through poetry.
An Academic in America
Is the purpose of the archive really just to complete a specific task, or is it more to take in the aura?
An Academic in America
To succeed as an English Ph.D., you have to give up all of the things that attracted you to the subject in the first place.
An Academic in America
If we want educated, disciplined graduates who won't disgrace us, we have to reverse the de-professionalization of faculty members.
An Academic in America
If today's students are self-indulgent, it's because faculty members have abdicated responsibility for the culture of our classrooms.
An Academic in America
Enabled by institutions, students increasingly seem to choose self-indulgence and self-esteem over self-denial and self-questioning.
An Academic in America
For a newly promoted professor, tenure means becoming a citizen rather than a subject.
An Academic in America
It's time for professors to abandon the genteel pose of being aloof from the sordid marketplace.
An Academic in America
How can I give a C to someone who is close enough to me to use my first name?
An Academic in America
The unsung heroes of the humanities are the anonymous editors of books that most of us use nearly every day.
An Academic in America
How many of us, as teachers, have encountered a student or colleague whose talents were greater than our own?
An Academic in America
Avoidance can be highly fruitful, provided you have plenty of things to do while postponing the most dreaded task.
An Academic in America
Used bookshops are as essential to scholarship as the availability of open stacks in campus libraries.
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