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This morning, I received an alumni survey from my alma mater, the University of Chicago. At the end, there was a section for extended comment. Since I indicated in the survey that I highly valued my education, the connections I

When I was in college, a friend of mine made a joke that he couldn’t read novels without a pencil in his hand, because he was so used to note-taking his philosophy books. My father is a professor, but I

Big theoretical concepts can help us to see the world in new ways. Big theoretical concepts can help us see historical events in new ways. This is especially important for methods classes like the one I am teaching now, since

I’ve recently had conversations with several colleagues about teaching theory in history. As a discipline, we’re not as obviously theory heavy as some of our compatriots in the social sciences, and much of the theory we use is grounded, or

The University of Chicago recently sent a letter to incoming students which has made me – for the first time – embarrassed to be affiliated with my undergraduate institution. Image from the Chicago Maroon twitter feed. https://twitter.com/ChicagoMaroon This letter (as

First comes the start of the semester; then comes grading; then comes the inevitable wondering about how to make grading less of a chore. I realized a few years ago that much of my dislike of grading came not from

In May of 2016, I taught the last section of my last class as Davidson College’s digital studies postdoc. In this final meeting, students in my “(Histories of) Gender and Technology” class presented projects that ranged from artistic engagements with

Next semester, for the first time, I get to teach an Atlantic history survey. I’ve taught a lot of courses that think Atlantically, but never one which has the Atlantic as a specific subject. Looking back over the syllabuses I

Last semester, inspired by Caleb McDaniel and Tim Burke‘s student-designed courses, I let students design the content of my Death in the Digital Age course. Then I wrote a post about it for EdSurge. Here, a few months later, is

This week I assigned Jeff McClurken’s article on Omeka and “productive discomfort.” I’ve had students read this article before, and while the resulting conversation was interesting, the article has never before resulted in the kind of robust debate about discomfort,