Knee-deep in Alligators
My father – himself a long-time academic administrator – had a cartoon he had posted on a bulletin board, featuring several business-suit wearing men, looking more than a bit terrified and bedraggled,...
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Summertime Re-set
So much has happened in the last two years. . . let me sum up. The good news? I still have a full-time faculty job. The bad news? Too many others don’t. Yes, my university has gone through the...
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Virtual with a Vengeance
Back in the 1990s, I used to joke that I lived much of my life virtually. When I wasn’t caring for kids or working at the U, I could be found in online forums like those at iVillage and other, even...
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Women’s History Week 2015!
If you want to know what’s been consuming my life for much of the past month (besides mountains of marking, a conference presentations and many other responsibilities) it’s Women’s HIstory Week....
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Too Many Books?
Do any of you have advice on how to manage an out-of-control book collection? I’m afraid that I have too many books! When I moved into my current office several years ago, I regarded three walls of...
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Time Management and Teaching
As we support Youngest in her transition to university, I’m reminded of how vitally important are all those skills that aren’t only academic, especially the skills of time management. In my own...
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Planning for a Work-Study Student
After a long time working on other projects, I’m happy to be getting back into my research on early modern families and crime. The university approved my work-study application so that, starting this...
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The Joys of a Good Teaching Text
Wednesday we’re back into the routine with three courses on tap for me this fall: Western Civilization (Renaissance to French Revolution), Early Medieval Europe and a graduate seminar on London...
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Student Depression: More Than Helicopter Parenting
You’ve seen the story making the rounds amongst parents and academics that correlates helicopter parenting with college-age depression. You might well have nodded along as you read the horrific stories...
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Moving On Up
As of July, I’ll be a Full Professor of History here at Laurentian University. I had applied last July 1st, even though I was barely back on my feet after a spring sacrificed to illness and malaise. I...
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It Can’t Be September
Because if it’s September I start teaching on the third. I also have article revisions due before mid-month. Eep! At least all my syllabi are ready. For those playing along at home, I’m teaching...
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File Wrangling
I’ve spent a fair bit of time over the past two months wrangling files. Actually, I’ve hired someone to wrangle a lot of paper files – to shred some materials that needed to be securely eliminated as...
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Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards
The teaching term has definitively ended and it was one of the best I’ve enjoyed in many years. However, if the term is over, the paperwork isn’t! Next week I have to polish off my annual report along...
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Short and Long Cycles (of Courses)
Publisher’s reps are emailing me with increasing frequency, asking what I’m teaching next year and what textbooks I’m going to adopt. I’ve had to consult some documentation to see what that will be...
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Reading London
I’m simultaneously shocked and tickled pink to be teaching a course relating to my research specialty at the graduate level. After more than a decade teaching historical methods and years before that...
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Virtue is. . .
Not sure if it’s a reward or what, but I’ve been spending most of this month with my nose to the proverbial grindstone. I’ve been marking and writing and preparing teaching. The writing has come to a...
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University from Both Sides Now
Eldest has graduated high school and is preparing to start university this autumn. It’s been an exciting and occasionally stressful year in our household with her working through the process of...
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Another Crop of Students Done
Yesterday I participated in an excellent graduate student’s M.A. thesis defense (in French – now that kept me on my passively-bilingual toes). This is the third student in nine months to complete an...
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Bingeing on Books
I wrapped up my winter’s term marking just as the last of the ice melted off of the lake. While getting back into my academic writing that’s been shelved most of the past month and pulling together the...
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So What (I’m Still a Rock Star)
I got a professional rejection today. Or, should I say, a rejection for a professional application: a research grant. The rejection itself wasn’t very professional. In fact, it was downright...
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