Workplace Dynamics And The Treatment Of Support Staff

A couple of days ago, my Brooklyn College colleague Corey Robin asked (on his Facebook page): How many academics would get tenure if the review took into account how they treated the department’s secretarial staff? A year or so after I had begun work at Bell Laboratories, I told a new hire that she shouldContinue reading “Workplace Dynamics And The Treatment Of Support Staff”

Vale Norman Foo (1943-2015)

On July 23rd, while on vacation in Canada with my family, I received a brief email from an old friend informing me that Norman Foo, Professor Emeritus at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, had passed away. Norman had been diagnosed with lung cancer–he was a non-smoker–early in 2012. His responseContinue reading “Vale Norman Foo (1943-2015)”

Art House Double Features: A Day (or Night) at the Movies

The impecunious graduate student’s best friend is the arthouse cinema double-feature. The evidence is in and the case is clear: for payoff in a diverse set of dimensions, the cinema double-feature is the winner hands down. Sure, the wine-and-cheese reception might get the budding academic a date or two–paper acceptances, book contracts, meaningful academic conversation,Continue reading “Art House Double Features: A Day (or Night) at the Movies”