Journalist – Historian – Speaker
I’d like to clear up some details about Georgia vs William Jeffrey Dumas, the case involving the alleged multiple rape of a woman with Down syndrome (I call her Jane). You can read the judge’s decision (redacted to protect the identity of the alleged victim) here. You can read District Attorney Ballard’s appeal (redacted to …
I have a lot to say about the Georgia rape case. I’ve read trial documents, some of which I intend to post this week, and can answer some questions that people have had. I’ll do that in another post, because here I want to focus on the least clear part of my essay. I wrote: …
I have a new essay up on CNN about a case in Georgia in which a woman with Down syndrome was allegedly raped, a jury convicted the rapist, and the judge overturned the conviction. The essay focuses on rape culture over disability, but in the next few days I’ll talk more about the disability aspect, …
Did you read it? Did you laugh? This meme is all over my Facebook feed again this week, though it’s 2 years old. Over half a million people have liked the version on Takei’s page, tens of thousands sharing, and there are over 10,000 comments. The ones I saw were all positive, though I read …
This is an essay about code-switching as a college skill. It starts, though, with questions about privilege and clothing. In a few minutes I am heading off to teach a class on Crusade and Jihad in the Middle Ages. We’ve just reached 1200 and I’ll be asking the students to break into groups and tell …
Go to http://xkcd.com/896/ for the full comic. It’s good. It’s not exactly news that women have often been denied credit for their contributions to major scientific discoveries or inventions. Rosalind Franklin, one of the discoverers of DNA, is justifiably the most famous, and her case still infuriates. Gender bias in the classroom still raises barriers for women …
I’ve taken off the Hugo nominee pin that I’ve worn proudly on my lapel since my Doctor Who episode, The Doctor’s Wife, won the Hugo in September 2012, and, for now, I’ve put it away. It isn’t Neil Gaiman’s fault that people worship him. Heck, before deconstructing his reaction post, which I find highly manipulative, let …
I’m working on an essay about the corporate language in higher ed as a followup to the big response I got to this post on EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE in a job advertisement for a Renaissance English professor. One paragraph of my draft currently reads: Take the syllabus. Many faculty (in my experience) and some teaching …
I decided to weigh in on the Jonathan Ross/Hugos story because of what I saw as gendered discourse in the backlash to the backlash, and because Seanan McGuire is someone I know (and I make music with her girlfriend) and deeply respect for her non-fiction writing on feminism, sexual orientation, and representation in fandom and fiction. Her …
Texas A&M University – Kingsville is hiring an early modern English Professor. A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, alerted me to this. This is what the end of the world (of Higher Education) as we know it looks like. Here’s a screenshot. According to this, the most important aspect of the professor’s job, …