Category Archives: grad school

new school year's resolutions

Here we are again, at the start of another school year. This seems like a more appro­pri­ate time for stu­dents to make res­o­lu­tions than at the begin­ning of the cal­en­dar year, and it is espe­cially impor­tant to form good study habits at the begin­ning of a new pro­gram. So, just for the record, here are mine:

Teachers College & social justice

Recently, Adam Kissel of FIRE (who I recently started fol­low­ing on Twit­ter) asked me: “What do you think about Teach­ers College’s idea that one isn’t qual­i­fied to be a teacher with­out believ­ing in social jus­tice?” I had pre­vi­ously seen FIRE’s roundup on free speech issues with TC, I think before I had even accepted my

changing gears

As you might know, I’m begin­ning a new PhD pro­gram this fall. This one is in phi­los­o­phy and edu­ca­tion, instead of just phi­los­o­phy. I’ve been very inter­ested in edu­ca­tion for a few years now, and I know some things about it, but basi­cally just enough to be dan­ger­ous and to write a decent admis­sions appli­ca­tion.

grad school ch-ch-changes

You, as my friend and/or reader, may have seen me post stuff on Twit­ter and Face­book sug­gest­ing that I am cur­rently apply­ing to grad­u­ate schools. Indeed, I am. I fig­ured I’d explain the sit­u­a­tion here, once and for all. Very shortly after I began a PhD pro­gram in phi­los­o­phy in the fall of 2007, my research

it's all been done

This is my lament. I am post­ing it in the hopes that some of my fel­low grad stu­dents can com­mis­er­ate. Do you ever get the feel­ing that, for every new topic in which you develop inter­ests, you later find that it’s all been done by some­one else? It’s hap­pened to me at least twice in the