ramble through the bronx

Sunday, August 27, 2006

How fast can I write my dissertation?

My friend Stephen forwarded me the following job posting:

21. CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY, Montreal, QUEBEC, Canada. Tenure-track position starting July 1, 2007, as assistant professor with AOS in Kant and Nineteenth Century German Philosophy. Send covering letter, resume, copies of recent publications, statement of teaching philosophy and interests, research achievements, evidence of teaching effectiveness, three letters of reference to: Chair, Department of Philosophy, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal QC Canada H3G1M8. Doctorate is expected by time of appointment. Review of applications begins November 1. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority. Concordia University is committed to employment equity. (SW06), posted: 07/07/06.

Concordia! With my Area of Specialty! argh argh argh.

Anyway, my advisor thinks I should go for it -- he writes

My recommendation is this: do everything you can to complete as much of your dissertation as possible between now and Nov. 1 -- and be able to promise that you'll have everything done by July 2007 (I can stand behind you on that). And go ahead and apply. When/if you impress them at the interview stage, they will be much more likely to cut you some slack about finishing on time, etc. So, in a word: work like crazy to complete as much of the dissertation as you can, and apply in time for their Nov. 2006 deadline (though it does not seem to be such a 'hard' deadline, after all.....)

And then in a follow-up email added

P.S. Many Canadian applicants for ths job will most likely have Canadian degrees. Your having a U.S. degree (which gives you U.S. contacts and U.S. experience) may give you an advantage over most Canadian applicants. The 'Jesuit' connection between Concordia (which emerged, in part, out of Loyola College) and Fordham cannot hurt, either.

Scary, scary, scary. I guess I'll go for it -- it's good practice for when I really go on the job market... but it's pretty terrifying as a prospect.

It would just be so GOOD.....

Meanwhile, here are some pictures --
This is me at the lectern at our Spring 2006 (April) symposium, co-hosted with the English department. Do I look sufficiently professional to be finishing a diss and going on the market? Would YOU hire me to teach your youngsters? I'm just the moderator at this event -- but would YOU take me seriously? I am really quite anxious about this. Even though I know I have nothing to lose, really... just some sleep. I will have to do my best to practice saying smart things. And also my best to avoid getting sucked in to things people want me to help out with... I will have to learn the magical word "No."


The second photo is more me, obviously, even though it's a guitar and not a banjo. This is taken at Heather's cottage, and it's Dawn's friend Charles's guitar.


Unfortunately the CD Dawn burned a bunch of photos onto dislikes my laptop, so I will wait to put more stuff up later once I am using a less-about-to-fall-apart computer.

In other news, I may be getting Jorge Cham from PhD comics to come speak at Fordham. Yay!!

jane 4:08 PM [+]

The title speaks for itself

From the Ottawa CBC news feed, Dealers lower crack prices to stave off competition.

jane 6:09 PM [+]

Yay poker!

Just want to share that I won last night at poker. Yes indeedy.

The game? Hold 'em, of course.

We (various grad students and their spouses) have been playing weekly for the last month or so. I was pretty new to the game, having only played a couple times before (once in Ottawa, with Dawn et al, and once in the spring with some Jesuits), so the last few game I thought to myself "I'm happy as long as I don't embarrass myself."

This particular game, I'd been thinking about strategy and how to win. And I thought to myself, "I'd like to win this time."

And I did. We played tournament-style, $5 buy-in, 8 players. So I won $35. Yay me!

Clearly I am the champion of the world.

jane 6:07 PM [+]

Iris Marion Young, dead at 57

She passed away on the 31st; here's today's Chicago Sun-Times obit:

U. of C. professor had passion for social justice

August 4, 2006

Iris Marion Young thought, wrote and taught about social justice.

But she also walked the front lines, marching out of academe to picket with striking workers at the Congress Hotel, or visiting employers to check out conditions for immigrant workers.

Her work in feminist and leftist political thought proved her to be "one of the most important political philosophers of the past quarter-century,'' said Cass Sunstein, U. of C. law and political science professor. Her writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Ms. Young, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, died Tuesday in her Hyde Park home of cancer. She was 57.

Ms. Young's 1990 book Justice and the Politics of Difference is a staple in classrooms around the world.

Cultural imperialism



In it, she took issue with "the tradition of thinking about justice in which what matters is whether people are getting a fair distribution of goods and resources,'' said a U. of C. colleague, Patchen Markell, associate professor in the Political Science Department.

Ms. Young argued "that there are other kinds of injustice in the world, besides just not getting a fair share of stuff,'' he said.

One other kind of injustice "involves a coerced cultural assimilation,'' Markell said. For example, "that there's a certain way of being an American that you have to live up to'' to get the full benefits of citizenship -- a kind of cultural imperialism.

Recently, her thinking evolved to questions of responsibility.

"How do you think about your responsibility -- as a consumer of Nike apparel -- ... for working conditions in Indonesia,'' for instance, Markell said. "We don't have ideas about responsibility to help us think about that.''

Ms. Young's most recent book was a collection of essays on the female body experience. A shorter version, Throwing Like a Girl, was published in the '80s.

It concerned the "distinctiveness of occupying a female body,'' Markell said.

Ms. Young grew up in the melting pot of Astoria, Queens, in New York.

"There are so many different types of people there and she grew up among them. I'm sure that shaped a lot of her views,'' said her daughter, Morgen Alexander-Young.

Ms. Young's mother was an interpreter for the United Nations who spoke more than a dozen languages, her daughter said, and her father died when she was young.

After graduating from Queens College in 1970, Ms. Young earned master's and doctorate degrees in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University.

There she met another grad student, David Alexander. They married 34 years ago.

As a grass-roots leftist political activist, Ms. Young didn't stop at writing about justice.

She joined Congress Hotel workers picketing in the ongoing strike that started in June 2003. It was remarkable for someone of her status to do such grunt work, said Jamie Daniel, former chair of Chicago Workers' Rights Board, which campaigns for workers' rights.

Ms. Young also visited employers to talk about mistreatment of workers, Daniel said.

As a political scientist, Ms. Young saw the workers' struggles as test cases for whether we are really a democracy, Daniel said.

Ms. Young marched in anti-war rallies and worked to persuade the World Bank to relieve African debt, said her daughter, who recalls her as a fully engaged mother on top of her other roles.

Avid appreciation for life



"I remember her balancing a career where she was growing in stature -- balancing that with being there for me every day after school, doing my homework with me, being there for my dad and cooking amazing meals,'' Alexander-Young said.

Ms. Young -- who loved jazz -- decided about 10 years ago she wanted to play for herself, her daughter said. So she started lessons. It was typical of her avid appreciation for life.

"She just loved the really small details, like how Lake Michigan looked at different times of the day, the different colors,'' her daughter said.

Besides her husband and daughter, survivors include a brother, James Young, and a sister, Jacqueline Young.

A fall memorial service is planned at the University of Chicago.

I really like Young's work... I actually have her Justice and the Politics of Difference on my office desk right now. This is very sad... but the description of her life here makes me want to emulate that example. Here's a tidbit from the U Chicago release:

Young was a popular teacher both of graduate and undergraduate students. Her class on global justice was among the most sought-after courses offered in Political Science.

“So many people wanted to take the course that it would be in a lecture hall, but she didn’t want to stand in the front of the room and spout information — she wanted students to be able to have a conversation,” said Markell, a professor in the department. “She was so popular that she was always outgrowing the format she most enjoyed teaching in. Everyone wanted to study with her.”

Young’s popularity was just as sure among her colleagues, who loved engaging in debate with her as much as they enjoyed watching her play jazz piano at the University’s faculty club, the Quadrangle Club.

“It never ceased to amaze me how someone of such immense scholarly stature and distinction could be so unfailingly generous with her students and so completely egalitarian with her colleagues,” said Sunstein.

Now there's an academic to look up to.

jane 3:03 PM [+]

Eat that cookie!

From The Australian, via the academics_anon community on LiveJournal:

Fortunately, there is also an attractive quick-fix approach to the problem of limited willpower. This is to use your moral muscle only very sparingly. My father, a professional philosopher, has a job that involves thinking very hard about very difficult things. This, of course, is an activity that consumes mental resources at a terrific rate.

The secret of his success as an academic, I am now convinced, is to ensure that none of his precious brainpower is wasted on other, less important matters. He feels the urge to sample a delicious luxury chocolate? He pops one in his mouth. Pulling on yesterday's shirt less trouble than finding a clean one? Over his head the stale garment goes. Rather fancies sitting in a comfy armchair instead of taking a brisk jog around the park? Comfy armchair it is. Thanks to its five-star treatment, my father's willpower - rested and restored whenever possible - can take on the search for wisdom with the strength of 10 men.

Don't strain your willpower muscle!

jane 10:15 AM [+]

Social Justice Forum

So, the new Social Justice Forum website is currently being built... so far it's a little shaky in places but it's beginning to look quite pretty. Yay Glen!

Meanwhile, Orientation is coming along (though the website is much less pretty).

Anyway. Gave the review class today; getting papers in tomorrow; working my last shift at the library tomorrow; giving them their exam Tuesday; then off to Ottawa at the end of next week for a bit. Yay!

jane 3:18 PM [+]