Opinion

University of Florida Architecture professor Charlie Hailey writes about a Fulbright visit to Macedonia.

I am going to go ahead and blame the 1980s. Namely, the educational push in those days to "boost children's self-esteem." I am going out on a limb here and guess that most of our Gradhacker readers were told repeatedly and often that they were smart, talented writers, brilliant speakers, etc. Yes, school came easy to us, and for this we were praised. And then we became praise junkies: always anticipating what the teacher wanted in order to get a hit. Fast-forward to graduate school: suddenly, there is no way to anticipate what the teachers want. Because they want us to think for ourselves. And thinking for ourselves means putting out those half-baked ideas to get ripped to shreds constructively criticized. Because we've been trained like Pavlov's dogs to equate criticism as an assault on our intelligence, we freak out. So today's post is dedicated to moving beyond this destructive pattern and learning to embrace the criticism in order to grow as people and as scholars.

The University System of Georgia which governs 35 public colleges and universities recently announced its plan to consolidate eight institutions into four in order to better serve students. Many stakeholders were disappointed by the clandestine nature and pace with which these decisions were made and are concerned about the possible consequences, many of which are yet unknown.

The new collection of essays, Debates in Digital Humanities, highlights how important transparency will be for academia going forward.

This February 5th I'll definitely be able to watch the Super Bowl. Legally.

Is reservation fair? Yes! say the pro-reservationists, as that is the only way to redress social inequity. No!, say the anti-reservationists, as it goes against meritocracy since well-qualified candidates are debarred at the expense of less-qualified ones. But, retort the pro-reservationists, it is precisely because lower caste candidates have not had the opportunity to attend the best schools that they need to have reserved seats

I spent part of my Christmas holidays in the house that I grew up in, located in the suburbs of Montreal. I haven’t lived in Montreal full-time since I left to go to university, more than (shudder) 15 years ago. And even then, I didn’t really live in Montreal growing up. And yet, in my mind, I’ve built up my home city to the point where there could be nowhere better to live.

As recorded here, our beloved 17-year-old cat, Molly, died over the summer. All three of us were, and continue to be, deeply affected by her loss. But we have also really missed having a cat around. And so, over Christmas Eve dinner, we discussed the possibility of adopting a new cat, and came to the conclusion that we were ready. We decided to visit the Humane Society shelter near us at our earliest opportunity, which turned out to be last Sunday.