There are many impediments to writing in the academic context for graduate students and faculty alike. For grad students, there are often teaching responsibilities that seem more important than one’s dissertation; of course, learning to teach is itself incredibly time consuming. For faculty, there are increasingly unmanageable workloads, which tends to push scholarship down theContinue reading “Writing in Concert as Creating a Shared World”
Author Archives: lking42
Trump, Harris, and Nietzschean Ressentiment
It’s easy to dismiss Donald Trump as unhinged after his recent performance in the presidential debate between him and Kamala Harris. Too easy, perhaps: immigrants are eating people’s pets? Babies are being executed by pro-abortionists. Jeez. I think, though, that there’s a method to Trump’s madness, and I think Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of ressentiment canContinue reading “Trump, Harris, and Nietzschean Ressentiment”
Writing Anxiety Through an Existentialist Lens
Writing is often anxiety producing. The experience has become so widespread for students that many college and university writing centers have information about how to deal with it (for instance: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/writing-anxiety/ and https://www.vanderbilt.edu/writing/resources/handouts/coping-with-writing-anxiety/). This information is often quite useful, and I would recommend their practical advice to those who are struggling. But I want toContinue reading “Writing Anxiety Through an Existentialist Lens”
On the Importance of Equality
We’re living in a strange moment, when the basic ideals of freedom and equality upon which the US was founded are under attack from a conservative, influential, and vocal minority. This minority is doing its best to institute laws that disenfranchise people of color; deny students access to books and courses of study that challengeContinue reading “On the Importance of Equality”
On Love
Valentine’s Day is all about romantic love, which we tend to think of as having little if anything to do with politics—it’s about a relationship between 2 people, after all. We get a very different view, though, if we consider love through the lenses of Socrates in Plato’s Symposium and in Audre Lorde’s “The UsesContinue reading “On Love”
On Death and Loss
My dad died, and that has led me to the grand insights that death is weird, and losing a loved one is hard. I know: not exactly insightful. But I’ve been trying to think about why death is weird and loss is hard. I’ve been thinking about Martin Heidegger, whose Being and Time focuses inContinue reading “On Death and Loss”
On Abortion and Biopolitics
Well, it’s happened: Roe V. Wade has been overturned. 15 states have abortion bans ready to go into effect, with many making no exception for rape or incest (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html ); others have enacted restrictions that in practice will pretty much ban the practice (many restrict abortion to before 6 weeks of pregnancy, when most peopleContinue reading “On Abortion and Biopolitics”
On Legislating Sexuality, Gender, and Race(ism): Hannah Arendt and the Loss of Plurality
There are many possible responses to the myriad attempts to legislate gender, sexuality, and race across the country, including: Florida’s recently passed “Don’t Say Gay” bill (https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis) Texas’s prosecution of gender-affirming care for minors as child abuse (https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/22/texas-transgender-teenagers-medical-care/) Numerous states’ attempts to ban the teaching of what has come to be called Critical Race TheoryContinue reading “On Legislating Sexuality, Gender, and Race(ism): Hannah Arendt and the Loss of Plurality”
If Socrates Were a Chief Inspector: Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache Series
Spoiler alert: this post discusses plot elements from A Rule Against Murder, A Trick of the Light, The Long Way Home, The Brutal Telling, and Bury Your Dead. I love murder mysteries. I read a lot of them, from well-written and complex stories to “cozy” mysteries, one of the pleasures of which is their simplicity.Continue reading “If Socrates Were a Chief Inspector: Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache Series”
On Rights, Freedom, and Covid
“We have to make sure this transcends politics,” he said. “It can’t be the mask game again. Vaccines are not political”—President Biden (reported by Politico, 3/15/21) When I was home for the holidays, I visited my 80-year-old aunt in a rehab facility where she has been since she fell a few months back. My momContinue reading “On Rights, Freedom, and Covid”
For Love of the World: 