University of Venus

Last May, Inside Higher Ed reported that Russell Berman, past president of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and Stanford University professor, has put forth a proposal together with five other Stanford colleagues to rethink the humanities PhD there. They tackled the question of whether and how to make the humanities PhD relevant today. In order to accomplish this, they posit that time to degree must be reduced and students should be trained for a diversity of career tracks, not limited to the traditional tenure track career path.

What’s New at UVenus: Denise Horn at University of Venus with Academic stress: reaching the end of an unbalanced semester...

If you’re a U.S. academic, you are likely about halfway through the summer break by now. Many are technically not on break, as you may (like me) have a 12-month appointment or be teaching in the summer. Nonetheless, for the majority the pace of everyday life in academia slows down with fewer students and faculty around in the summer. This slower pace means more time for research or other summer projects -- but can also contribute to a lack of motivation (for example, as an extrovert, I find it difficult to keep myself motivated in the summer since I have much less contact with people).

When I pitched this series of “Postcards from the Participatory” back in November of 2011, I'd intended it to be a small collection of narratives exploring Massive Open Online Courses from the inside.

An announcement was made few days ago that my University has increased its allocation for the Doctoral Studies Fund. Said Fund provides full support to faculty members getting into Ph.D. programs in the Philippines and abroad. No surprise that the announcement was met with lukewarm response by my younger colleagues. At the recent review of our 5-year faculty development plan, those who were supposed to go have all decided not to.

Earlier this school year I wrote about mentoring as part of my mandate for the year, and now that my school year is ending I have time to reflect on how this worked for me and my students. I work with lots of students. In previous years the number was close to 1200 students per year. This last year, I had a teaching release and taught more than 900 students. I am also an Undergraduate Advisor, which means that students can potentially get lots of face time with me.

The rush of the end-of-semester, then the let-down, then the onset of the summer months can often inspire reflection in academics on our classroom practices, our research, and our other responsibilities. Have I achieved a manageable work-life balance this year? (Haha, surely you jest.) How can I make this class work better next semester? What can I hope to accomplish this summer in terms of my research? How am I going to pay the bills (those off the tenure track and/or have 9-month contracts paid over 9-months understand)?

What’s New at UVenus: ● Sarah Emily Duff for University of Venus at The Guardian with Could ebooks be the...