The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Previous "An Academic in America" Columns

"Thomas H. Benton," an associate professor of English, offers his take on academic work and life.

An Academic in America

A look at whether student evaluations of teaching can be administered effectively via the Internet.

An Academic in America

Why are so many artists and writers preoccupied by the so-called demise of bookish culture?

An Academic in America

Exactly how should we teach the 'digital natives'?

An Academic in America

A cartload of recent books suggests that it's time to reverse the customer-service mentality plaguing academe.

An Academic in America

An English professor immerses himself in an emerging field that has already begun to redefine academic work.

An Academic in America

Should faculty members reveal uncomfortable truths to prospective parents, or should we just try to make the sale?

An Academic in America

Names matter in academe, but how they matter is a complicated question.

An Academic in America

Despite 10 years of reports and rhetoric, the economic conditions of academic labor are considerably worse.

An Academic in America

It's time to abandon the graduate career-services office and consult an astrologer.

An Academic in America

After gaining tenure and losing 40 pounds, a professor gives himself a fashion makeover.

An Academic in America

If you teach a few hundred students a year, it seems only a matter of time before you run into a dangerous one.

An Academic in America

Tenured and solidly middle class, a professor seldom feels he is giving anything back to his working-class roots.

An Academic in America

Repeat to yourself, "I am too cool to be a professor, I am too cool to be a professor."

An Academic in America

All too often, students learn the hard way that education, like the stock market, is built on speculation.

An Academic in America

Is there anything shameful about a professor using commercial products to develop course material?

An Academic in America

While cherishing the material culture of books, an English professor nonetheless sees some distinct advantages to online sources.

An Academic in America

When it comes to writing, the best office is one that offers no realistic possibility of improvement.

An Academic in America

Just as we help new students acquire writing and reading skills, we must spend more time teaching them how to behave in a classroom.

An Academic in America

There are lots of ways of being a writer, just as there are lots of ways of being a reader.

An Academic in America

Sure, his college has a fine utilitarian collection, but what he really longs for are the tactile pleasures of a great university library.

An Academic in America

The association's latest report seeks to aid a segment of the academic work force that has the least to worry about.

An Academic in America

What happens to "diversity" when it loses its oppositional stance and becomes a ritual profession of faith?

An Academic in America

Once you have tenure, it's time to make a conscious effort to step out of the usual groove of your career.

An Academic in America

An English professor who would have been a scientist, but for the physics, laments the push-button, plush-toy mentality of today's museums.

An Academic in America

A father's passing leads an English professor to seek comfort through poetry.

An Academic in America

Is the purpose of the archive really just to complete a specific task, or is it more to take in the aura?

An Academic in America

To succeed as an English Ph.D., you have to give up all of the things that attracted you to the subject in the first place.

An Academic in America

If we want educated, disciplined graduates who won't disgrace us, we have to reverse the de-professionalization of faculty members.

An Academic in America

If today's students are self-indulgent, it's because faculty members have abdicated responsibility for the culture of our classrooms.

An Academic in America

Enabled by institutions, students increasingly seem to choose self-indulgence and self-esteem over self-denial and self-questioning.

An Academic in America

For a newly promoted professor, tenure means becoming a citizen rather than a subject.

An Academic in America

It's time for professors to abandon the genteel pose of being aloof from the sordid marketplace.

An Academic in America

How can I give a C to someone who is close enough to me to use my first name?

An Academic in America

The unsung heroes of the humanities are the anonymous editors of books that most of us use nearly every day.

An Academic in America

How many of us, as teachers, have encountered a student or colleague whose talents were greater than our own?

An Academic in America

Avoidance can be highly fruitful, provided you have plenty of things to do while postponing the most dreaded task.

An Academic in America

Used bookshops are as essential to scholarship as the availability of open stacks in campus libraries.

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