Journalist – Historian – Speaker
I have a bunch of pieces out in various stages of edits, and hope to have 3 or 4 pieces published next week. This week I had only one, a new Game of Thrones piece for Vice. I think the changing relationship between the books and the show is interesting. Eventually, the show will become canon, …
The Trigger Warning debate is back. Did it ever really go away? Here’s my new piece of the argument: Trigger Warnings preserve access to offensive content that, nevertheless, has educational value. A year ago I wrote this piece for CNN in the context of the TW discussion. I argued that best practices for teaching any content …
I like TV shows, books, and movies that are imperfect matches for my values. They are produced in societies that are, likewise, imperfect, and few cultural creations can withstand any kind of purity test. That doesn’t mean that you just get to ignore the problem. It also doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stop enjoying …
Troll Warning: Image of a troll silhouette in a red triangle. From WikiCommons. Trolls are happy to be trolls, mostly. They like the term; it conveys power. They have driven a lot of good people off the internet in their large-scale acts, and just made it an unsafe place in an everyday, small-scale, nasty way. …
This week I had one published piece – Low Cost College Isn’t Enough (CNN.com, 5/20/15) Over the next 18 months of the presidential election, there’s going to be a lot of conversation about lowering the cost of college. I am asking you to help me make sure we also talk about high quality, which for …
Last month I wrote a piece for Al Jazeera America on zero tolerance, restraint, abuse, and the cult of compliance in our schools. I started with a report from the Center for Public Integrity and the story of Kayleb Moon-Robinson. Kayleb Moon-Robinson is a 12-year-old boy who lives in Virginia. One day at school, he kicked …
UPDATE: My NYT piece has been delayed. Still in the works but probably 10 days or so from now, for various reasons. Stay tuned! Today I am going to have a piece in the New York Times about Autism Speaks and a recent parenting dilemma. I thought it might be useful to have some resources here. …
In my recent CNN piece, I wrote about my university with both pride and realism. We are a relatively low-cost private school that does some things exceptionally well. Those things that we do well cost money, though. I wrote: The Pell Institute’s publication “Moving Beyond Access: College Success For Low-Income, First-Generation Students” lists advising, tutoring, mentoring, …
NOTE – This piece has been updated to remove a sentence in which I attributed ideas to Goldrick-Rab which she doesn’t hold. I regret the error. Yesterday I wrote a new piece for CNN, offering my take on the expanding debate about the cost of college. Today, Bernie Sanders is going to file a 70 …
Being a racist is not enough to invalidate academic freedom. Jerry Hough, a Duke Professor, left a racist comment on a New York Times page. He is now reportedly on leave. Hough has denied he’s a racist. From Slate: Hough told both the local ABC and Fox affiliates that he was on leave after his comments, …