Ellyn Kaschak, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita of Psychology, San Jose State University Watch out for Dr.Kaschak as she’s violated the first rule of Trans Club – You don’t talk about Trans Club… “The diagnostic of “gender dysphoria” actually came into existence as “gender identity disorder” and replaced the pathologizing
Continue readingTag: Academia
Dead Wild Roses: David Cromwell – On Academic Collaboration with the Private Sector
David Cromwell excels at identifying key points of friction between public and private interests. In this excerpt he examines how higher learning is being bent to fulfil its corporately mandated responsibilities to society. “This [Academia] is a privileged sector where critical thought and enquiry into human society, the natural world and the cosmos ought to […]
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Friends don’t let friends study Psychology
In this video I encourage people considering pursuing an education in Psychology at any formal level – bachelors, research Masters/PhD, or Clinical Masters/PhD – to research and reconsider what they are considering. My relevant experience includes having an Hon. B.Sc. in Psychology Research and Cognitive Science, having been an MS/PhD
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Friends don’t let friends study Psychology
In this video I encourage people considering pursuing an education in Psychology at any formal level – bachelors, research Masters/PhD, or Clinical Masters/PhD – to research and reconsider what they are considering.
Continue readingCan academics serve two masters?
The steady encroaching of the corporate sector into the decision-making processes of our societies is the greatest threat to twenty-first century democracy. This includes encroachment into academia. This troubling development was brought to light in the recent Alberta election. The NDP proposed a two per cent increase in the corporate
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: An Adjunct Tragedy | The Nation
An Adjunct Tragedy | The Nation. The proletarianization of higher education, according to the associate general counsel of the United Steel Workers Union, has now claimed a life. In a moving op-ed published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Daniel Kovalik, wrote this week of Margaret Mary Vojtko, a French teacher at
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Aaron Swartz, Intellectual Property and the Public Good
Should academic work be locked up like Disney[tm] artifacts? I’ve been quite inspired by this very good analysis of the context surrounding Aaron Swartz’s suicide. As news spread last week that digital rights activist Aaron Swartz had killed himself ahead of a federal trial on charges that he illegally downloaded
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: How are Psychology PhDs doing on the job market?
I am a reformed and rehabilitated ex-academic. In my previous life, I aspired to be a professor of Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science. I described my experiences in the academic stream in a series entitled The Grad School Gospels. In The Grad School Gospels I have been pessimistic about the
Continue readingExponential Book: What do you look for (part two)?
Having expounded in my previous post what kind of person I look for, when serving on the search committee for a tenure-track hire, now it is time to list the criteria that I adopt to try and spot my ideal candidate, as I go through application packages (APs). I am
Continue readingExponential Book: What do you look for (part one) ?
I am a faculty member in a university physics department, who finds himself periodically involved in faculty searches and hires. How do I evaluate the curriculum vitae of an applicant for a tenure-track position? What do I look for, and what are the red flags? Does it really boil down
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: The Grad School Gospels – Part 4: On Grad School Goggles and the Cult-Like Nature of Grad School
The Grad School Gospels is a series of posts inspired by Dirk Hayhurst‘s The Bullpen Gospels. In the Bullpen Gospels, Hayhurst tells stories from his struggle to self-actualize through professional baseball. Inspired by Hayhurst and the many commonalities I noticed between the minor league track to the Majors, as he
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: The Grad School Gospels – Part 2: Passion, Fear and Indifference
In The Grad School Gospels: On Professional Baseball, Academia, and My Shared Experience with Dirk Hayhurst, I juxtaposed Hayhurst‘s pro baseball journey – which he recounts in his first book, The Bullpen Gospels – with my journey through academic psychology. Several factors conspired to make our situations alike. We both
Continue readingExponential Book: Binomial distributions and multiple choice tests
Readers of my blog know that I generally regard multiple choice tests (MCTs) as an adequate tool to assess student knowledge of, and proficiency with, a given set of topics. I have written about this subject here and here. No, I do not think that MCTs are perfect, nor do
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Tough Chewing for Sunday Brunch
Pop a Zantac and try to digest McMaster prof Henry Giroux’s lament on the Disappearance of Public Intellectuals. Here are a few excerpts: As a theater of cruelty and mode of public pedagogy, economic Darwinism removes economics and markets from the discourse of social obligations and social costs. The results
Continue readingExponential Book: Who’s really obsessed with Impact Factor ?
What brings more prestige to a scientist, an article which receives hundreds of citations, even if published on a relatively minor, or even obscure journal, or one that is published on a high profile, glamorous publication with a high Impact Factor (IF), but whose citation record is modest ? Most
Continue readingExponential Book: Independent and original
I doubt if I can offer any deeper insight or more pointed advice to a tenure track assistant professor in the sciences, than what anyone can find on a number of reputable science blogs. Often times, however, as I go through posts describing the “dos and donts” of young scholars
Continue readingExponential Book: Education disadvantage
If a cash-strapped province or state had to make painful cuts to public services, the immediately noticeable effect would be the outright elimination of some of them. One would not think of, say, laying off a fraction of all bus drivers and asking the remaining ones to work longer hours,
Continue readingExponential Book: Double whammy
We all understand that, sometimes, financial hardship is simply a fact of life. And I do believe that most of us are willing to endure painful sacrifices, in the pursuit of a common good. What exasperates people, is the perception of a general lack of vision, of a concrete, well
Continue readingExponential Book: On the road again
A long and tiring term is coming to a close. Time to celebrate the holidays, then head out to Vancouver for a few days, to end 2011, and then it will be a new year and a new term. The Winter term of 2012 is also going to be very
Continue readingExponential Book: Customers
Imagine the following, hypothetical situation: the owner of a small high-tech company needs all of his employees retrained, in view of the adoption of a new, company-wide software system. He decides to send a few of them to a week-long course with a private firm, specialized in offering short courses
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