Two new essays on Ethan Saylor caught my eye this morning: First – Debra Alfarone, a reporter for W-USA 9 News in D.C., wrote a good short piece on the state of the Ethan Saylor case. The best reporting on the case has all come out of the D.C. area, even as the story has…
My good friend K. sent me these links yesterday on male feminism. I’m increasingly interested in articulating my thoughts as a male feminist (as opposed to just being one), now that I’ve personally experienced how threatening such an idea is to so many men (see the comment section here). In The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland argues…
When I was an early teenager, I read many marvelous books. Life was complicated in that privileged way upper middle glass over-educated way. My social skills and self-confidence were poor. I talked too much. I talked too much about the wrong things. I was teased and sometimes bullied in school. All of this is to…
So I published an essay on Ethan Saylor today, placing his death in the context of other episodes of police violence against people with disabilities. It’s at The Nation, my first publication there, and I’m pleased with it, though social media sharing has been a bit light (not a direct indication of readership, but suggestive…
Here’s the conversation between me and my son, Nico, last night, as he headed to use the toilet. Me: Nico, do you need a book? Nico: Di-no Me: Dino? Nico: Okay! So I handed him our shiny new copy of How do Dinosaurs Go to School. Nico has Down syndrome. More relevant: he has speech…
Yesterday, I received an email from Rebecca Sharpless, Associate Professor of History at Texas Christian University. It began (shared with permission): Dear David Perry, Thanks to you, I have now published in the New York Times. Last Thursday, when I was debating on whether to weigh in on the Paula Deen flap with her cook,…
The Toronto Star has a good essay that, like my own writing, explores the issue of what happens to a parent when they receive the diagnosis. When my son Max, now 5, was diagnosed with the complex brain disorder just after his third birthday, it was like a sucker punch to the gut. In one…
Just a note, as I seem to be posting this a lot. 1. The person I read, in English, about the Pope, is John Allen at the New Catholic Reporter. In general, the NCR is my first stop when trying to figure out what modern Catholics with whom I generally agree are thinking. Well, my…
Last week the Chronicle of Higher Education published my essay on public engagement. There’s some irony here, in that I just received positive reader reports on my book and entered a grant-writing period (now that I can apply for grants for the next project). So just as I’ve spoken as strongly and clearly as I…
In May 2005, I drove from Minneapolis to Northfield, to interview for my first academic position outside the graduate school bubble. The position involved teaching three classes, one in J-term and two in the spring, for the pre-modernist who was joining the “Great Conversation” program. It was a spectacularly beautiful spring day in Minnesota. I…