Entries Tagged as ‘Questions’

July 17, 2008

On Quechua Words Ending in -ay

There are many such words and I want to know the meaning of this syllable.
PLACE NAMES INCLUDE
Abancay
Chancay
Chinchay
Recuay
Yungay
VERBS INCLUDE
Yanapay (=to cooperate reciprocally)
Challay (=to sprinkle, to fall as does dew)
…and many, many others. Indeed, there seem to be -ay, -iy, and -uy verbs, but -ay verbs seem to dominate.
I know absolutely nothing about this, I am just [...]

July 12, 2008

That Passion Quilt

I have been tagged again for the Passion Quilt meme, for which I thank WoC PhD. I am honored because I do not think of myself as passionate about teaching - I was not brought up to think of that as safe, say you are interested in it and you will not get a tenure [...]

May 24, 2008

A Serious Question

In the last quarter my TIAA-CREF retirement fund sustained another net loss. I do not live in a state which pays into Social Security, so this is my only retirement fund. Since I am theoretically a young person I have the funds allocated to relatively, although not outrageously high risk enterprises. I have [...]

May 23, 2008

An Unusual Professor?

A friend tells me I am an unusual professor because, although I am research oriented and work at a research institution, I care about undergraduate education. I see his point but I wonder, is it really true?
1. I do not feel that I care about lower division instruction. It does matter to me, and I [...]

April 8, 2008

I Object

I
People are very critical of women who are being abused physically. Why do they not just leave … why do they then get into another abusive relationship … and on, and on. “They are sick, that is why!” shouts the chorus in glee. The chorus forgets to consider how many predators there are, and how [...]

March 30, 2008

A Modest Proposal

It is the weekend, and I am in New Orleans singing with WWOZ. I have been hanging out at an excellent conference wherein smart professors and graduate students spoke. It has been very refreshing. I feel as though I am beginning to right my sails.
While driving back and forth I considered everyone’s posts on tenure [...]

March 26, 2008

On Sincerity

Over a year ago I had an argument with a blogger in which he accused me of insincerity. One of his blog friends looked at the exchange and said that actually, I was sincere “to a fault.”
This was very interesting and I have thought about it since from time to time. I was first accused [...]

March 24, 2008

Open Thread on Tenure

Aside from the talk of abolishing it, tenure remains important for all of the usual reasons (primarily academic freedom), but for others perhaps more important, especially faculty governance.
Without the job security of tenure, the professoriate is reduced to the role of a paid workforce serving at the whim of various bottom lines. More importantly, [...]

March 10, 2008

On Passing

How, precisely, do families who are in the final stages of transformation from Black to white, manage this internally? From what I have observed of people who move out of state to pass, the parents (at least one of whom will still look Creole) will keep a kind of don’t ask don’t tell policy on [...]

February 29, 2008

A Serious Question for Everyone

One of my classes is dominated by conservative Christians and I am unsure how to handle their reactions to 19th and 20th century poets. On the one hand, one wants them to read the texts in some sort of accurate way. On the other, one does not want to alienate them. Here is an example [...]