People have asked me about what is happening in the History Dept at my uni and particularly what is going on with our graduate program. I've held off saying anything until a decision was made and communicated to our students. That happened at a meeting last night, so short thread
As a little background, the college that History is in has had budget shortfalls the last few years, the result of declining enrollments and increases in university costs. We are now in an $11 million hole which is expected to grow even higher over the next several years.
May 4, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
After a year and a half of solid work, the Iowa State University Faculty Senate just voted to approve a new U.S. Diversity Requirement. Students have demanded this for the last 6 years (or more). Faculty Senate has tried and failed to do anything. This time we did! Short thread:
So ISU’s Diversity Req was developed in 95/96 and changed little since then. It was a mess. It had a “diversity is everything + the kitchen sink” framework, was bland/clunky, and allowed instructors to satisfy the Req if their course fulfilled only 2 Learning Outcomes. See below
Nov 22, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
A little tidbit re the image used here by Ted Cruz (the turkey one has been around for at least half a decade btw). Like many of the ways the Right understands history, Cruz often cherry picks his data so he can come off as what he thinks is funny or tough or smart. Short thread:
In doing so, of course, he misses broader historical nuance and the reality of what he's talking about. Lots of folks have highlighted the ugliness of such a meme in light of the long food lines and huge spike in Covid cases in Texas. cbsnews.com/news/thousands…
Aug 6, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
A few thoughts on teaching/interacting w students in general, but especially in the age of Covid. Thread:
So I was trained in the school of "professors are hard asses." A number of salient sayings go along with this school, most notably "first you frighten, then you enlighten."
As a grad student, I adopted this school's philosophy both because I was required to, esp as a teaching assistant, and because I was influenced by my professors and mentors. I not only thought they were right, I had to adopt this thinking when I worked as a TA under those profs.
Jun 17, 2020 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
It seems a lot of folks who saw the news about Aunt Jemima are taken aback, “Aunt Jemima isn’t racist!” “How could you get rid of Aunt Jemima!” So for those who might be interested, here’s a little thread: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/a…1. Aunt Jemima existed before the pancake mix. Her depiction was popularized in the 1870s in minstrel shows/songs. The advo below features a performance by Billy Kersands, a Black performer who did Black Blackface portrayals of Aunt Jemima. White and Black performers did this.
May 28, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I've been editing chapters on 1970/80s police reforms. Activists in particular fought for better police training, "minority recruitment programs" to diversify police depts, psych testing to remove troubled officers. PDs in many locales did all of it. It seemed so...hopeful. But,
such reforms were never universal. Good done in one city could be undone by a police killing in another. Training only went so far without the ability to get rid of untrainable, problematic officers. Diversifying mattered little when the institutional racism within PDs remained.
It’s been 2 weeks since the horrendous shooting in El Paso, the murder of 22 innocent individuals & wounding of 24 others. 2 weeks, #ElPasoShooting is no longer trending, most news outlets have dropped the story, the process of forgetting has begun.
There are several things that may explain why we’ve begun to forget El Paso. Many people don’t know the city and it may seems geographically far removed from the worldview of folks unfamiliar with the Southwest.
