Monthly Archives: October 2009

"Piracy" - book cover

Against a Sea of Troubles

Piracy has been a scourge from the earliest days of the printing press, but are today’s cures worse than the disease? A review essay of Adrian Johns’ Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates (University of Chicago Press, 2010). Piracy has been a scourge from the earliest days of the printing press, but are today’s cures worse than the disease?

Back to School sign

Reflections of a Mid-Career Student

With a doctorate in genetics and plant breeding, I had been working in India as an assistant professor and a scientist in the discipline of genetics, plant breeding and plant biotechnology for several years. I had never aspired to be …

Seeking tenure? How junior scholars should navigate troubled departmental waters

Universities most often respond to junior faculty members’ concerns about tenure and the tenure process with workshops offering tips and strategies for how to conduct their work lives optimally pre-tenure and how to prepare the best case for winning tenure. While these workshops are helpful, they assume a basic meritocratic structure, uniformity of objectivity, and fairness across departments, an assumption that is more myth than reality.