January 27, 2012
Using the Ancient Greeks to pay for Modern Greece
You too can use the Parthenon as a backdrop! Film at the shrine of Apollo at Delphi for $2,100 a day!
Forced to survive on a mere 0.7% of the national budget, the culture ministry hopes the fees will help boost its ability to look after monuments that have been badly hit by Greece's economic crisis. Lack of maintenance funds have meant that workers could only start building a new staircase in Delphi this week.All the revenues will be used by the ministry, whose funds have been cut by more than 30% since 2010.
"This is a very big step and we are not going to stand idly by if we feel the monuments are being used improperly," said one archaeologist. She said many of her colleagues were "not happy".
I'll bet they're not!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:48 AM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2012
I'm already over the Era of Good Feelings about this semester.
Well that was a record -- I posted happy thoughts this morning and I'm complaining by 7:30 p.m.
OK - one of my classes has an assignment due before tomorrow's meeting. They need to go to Blackboard and download (at least) 3 response worksheets for readings from the Bible. They must do the Matthew sheet and then they can choose 2 from the other 11. Next week they do 5, then the third week they do 2 for a grand total of 10.
Here's the tricky part -- I ask them before emailing the file to me to save it under a new name -- and that their LAST name must be the first word in the file name. Why?
Why should I have to explain? That's what the directions say and what I explained in class. But if you, in this world of carefully explained Outcomes and Assessments need to know why, it's because when I download them files with proper nomenclature will automatically alphabetize in my Download folder.
Why am I so neurotic about last names? In a world with multiple Sarahs and Emilys in every class (10.3% of the students on the Rome Program last year were named Emily, TWO of them Emily H.) I prefer to work with last names.
So - one student has now tried 3 times. Since I happen to be sitting at the computer messing with images for tomorrow's lectures, I keep bouncing the email back to her asking for the same thing -- last name first. She's up to FirstNameLastNameTopic.docx now, which is improvement (but still wouldn't solve the Sarah Problem).
Other students have the same problem, but they have responded correctly after one email. Imagine a class of direction-readers! What a luxury!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:16 PM | Comments (0)
Creepy Presidential Nostalgia
Megan McArdle on the most disquieting part of last night's State of the Union address -- the nostalgia for the 50s and 60s:
I think the speech made it even clearer that other speeches have that the president's vision of the world is a lightly updated 1950s technocracy without the social conservatism, and with solar panels instead of rocket ships. Government and labor and business working in tightly controlled concert, with nice people like Obama at the reins--all the inventions coming out of massive government or corporate labs, and all the resulting products built by a heavily unionized workforce that knows no worry about the future.There are obviously a lot of problems with this vision. The first is that this is not what the fifties and sixties were actually like--the government and corporate labs sat on a lot of inventions until upstart companies developed them, and the union goodies that we now think of as typical were actually won pretty late in the game (the contracts that eventually killed GM were written in the early 1970s).
And to the extent that the fifties and sixties were actually like this, we should remember, as Max Boot points out, that this was not actually the day of the little guy. Big institutions actually had a great deal more power than they do now; it was just distributed somewhat differently--you had to worry less about big developers slapping a high-rise next to your single-family neighborhood, and a whole lot more about Robert Moses deciding he wanted to run a freeway through the spot where your house happened to be.
The military model of society--employed by both Obama, and a whole lot of 1950s good government types--was actually a kind of creepy way to live. As Boot says, "America today is far more individualistic and far more meritocratic with far less tolerance for rank prejudice and far less willingness to blindly follow the orders of rigid bureaucracies." If you want the 1950s except without the rigid conformity and the McCarthyism, then you fundamentally misunderstand what made the 1950s tick.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)
Drop/Add closed yesterday . . .
. . . and for once I have a good distribution of students. My 200-level High Middle Ages class (I keep meaning to change the title from "Age of Chivalry," which I inherited) is almost all sophomores and juniors, with a sprinkling of first years. The only seniors are non-majors (though one of them may be a minor). My 300/400-level Roman class is almost all juniors and seniors, with 3 of the seniors taking the 400 option (longer research paper with presentation to a departmental colloquium in April). The only first year student has a background in Latin and is interested in a classics major or minor.
Looks good!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:09 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2012
Comfort food
Lamb meatloaf at the Red Dove! One of those things that makes an unsnowy winter night in Geneva more beautiful.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:56 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2012
Early Modern: the Competition
One of my colleagues on the search committee was reading files yesterday afternoon and asked who else was searching this season. I popped onto the Academic Jobs Wiki to answer her question. Here's the competition, with some notes:
Tenure Track
Early Modern or Renaissance/Baroque
College of Charleston - Ren/Bar (teach a 3/3 load)
Concordia U Montreal - filled
Tulane
Oklahoma State - hiring assistant or associate
U of British Columbia - asst or assoc
U of Pennsylvania - wide ranging regional interests, 1300-1750
Narrower than us
Case Western - Early Modern Southern Europe
U Wisconsin-Madison - Early Mod Northern Europe
Columbia - Southern Europe 1300-1700
Broader than us
Coastal Carolina - Renaissance specialty, must teach Medieval, Ren, Baroque - filled
Grinnell - medieval / early modern - asst or assoc
Lawrence U - Renaissance primary, Medieval secondary
Mills College - Medieval, Renaissance, OR Baroque -- filled
U of Alabama - Medieval/Renaissance
U of Montevallo - Ancient to Renaissance
U of Pittsburgh - any field in pre-1750, especially Mediterranean or Global
U of Southern Indiana - Med, Ren, OR Baroque
Non Tenureable or Other
Lasalle University-- Chair, Fine Arts Dept - specialization in Ren Art
Middlebury - visiting
UMass Dartmouth - visiting
Our job?
Hobart and William Smith Colleges invite applications for a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor in Early Modern European Art and Architecture, beginning Fall 2012. Preference will be given to candidates prepared to teach broadly in the arts of Europe and with a research specialization in painting or sculpture. Additional teaching interest in an outside field or period complementing those of current department members is desirable (e.g., African-American, African, Pre-Columbian).
We seek an enthusiastic colleague with broad competencies that will allow work with faculty from other departments in our general curriculum and cross-listing of courses with our interdisciplinary programs (see catalogue: these include, for example, Women's Studies, European Studies, Africana Studies, Environmental Studies, Media and Society). The Department encourages participation in Global Education programs. Ph.D. preferred, ABD considered.
The teaching load is five courses per year, one of which will be a 100-level survey course. Successful candidates will show an ability to offer relevant intermediate and upper-division courses, including capstone courses, and to participate in the First Year Seminar program.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:42 AM | Comments (0)
Roman Architecture in the News!
I just forwarded this link to my Roman Art, Architecture, and Power class: Mysterious 'Winged' Structure from Ancient Rome Discovered. Oh - first off, they mean "building with wings," not "Roman attempt at a flying machine." But the archaeologist makes a good point, which I hope my group will pick up on:
"Generally speaking, [during] the Roman Empire people built within a fixed repertoire of architectural forms," said William Bowden, a professor at the University of Nottingham, who reported the find in the most recent edition of the Journal of Roman Archaeology. The investigation was carried out in conjunction with the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group.The winged shape of the building appears to be unique in the Roman Empire, with no other example known. "It's very unusual to find a building like this where you have no known parallels for it," Bowden told LiveScience. "What they were trying to achieve by using this design is really very difficult to say."
Novelty and uniqueness are difficult to interpret!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:47 AM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2012
Reintroducing Peak Carnivores to Britain
Bears, wolves, lynxes - yikes! Elk, beaver, cranes - hmm!
Not a new story (2010), but I was curious about whether or not Britain had ever had a large-ish cat, and was googling around. They did! There were lynxes until about 1300 -- and there might be again. Lynxes eat deer, and the UK has too many of those (don't we know about that problem here in Upstate New York!).
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:29 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2012
Omigosh! A adjectival use of "medieval" in the press that isn't all that inaccurate!
Printed newspapers may be in crisis in the West but circulations remain enormous in high-tech Japan - and its media will even resort to medieval methods to get copies to readers.When the March 2011 tsunami struck a great swathe of the northeast coast, leaving 19,000 people dead or missing and triggering the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it also submerged theIshinomaki Hibi Shimbun's presses.
The 14,000-circulation paper had the biggest story of its 100-year existence right on its flooded doorstep, but no way of printing it.
So its reporters did what monks in European monasteries did with the Bible in the Middle Ages and copied out their message to the people by hand.
(my emphases)
Of course, one might point out that the news was distributed this way at cafés in Western Europe well into the Modern era, but still.
via my Japanese-professor colleague.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
"The world needs more singer/songwriters and fewer doctors and engineers."
Yes - I head back into the classroom tomorrow morning!
via Joanne Jacobs
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2012
I am really not up to bi-location
I needed to set up my office hours, so I just checked my official PeopleSoft-promulgated schedule of classes. The Registrar has me teaching a 2-level class (332/432) in two rooms at the same time.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:22 PM | Comments (0)
Opposed to big bonuses? What, do you hate the State of New York's tax base?
Zerohedge reports on Morgan Stanley's cap on bonuses -- and reminds us of some of the consequences.
And here's Megan McArdle's take on the prospect.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:59 AM
Ah, academic job applicant folders
Of course WE didn't remember that there would be a federal holiday Monday, so some material will be trickling in legitimately late, but we're hoping to gently close the door soon, get everything read (some of us have read a lot, some a little, and some none, but that's about average). There are all sorts of interesting folks who are applying; this is the exciting phase, before we have to make any decisions NOT to hire anyone (other than the most flagrant examples of applying for every job this year). Just off hand, I think we're in the high 50s now for total number of folders -- but some of those have only one or two letters of recommendation in them and the application hasn't arrived. Soon!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:25 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2012
I'm looking forward to a moment to go see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Until then, things like this will have to do.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:23 AM | Comments (1)
January 15, 2012
Watson is a blogger!
Sherlock - the 2012 version. So far quite good -- better than House. Holmes's deductions about Watson are very elegant -- especially the pocket watch translated to a cell phone (not scratches around the winder but scratches around the power port) -- but with an additional twist! The text floating over things to help us follow Holmes's work are also elegantly done.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2012
Two courses all about columns
I exaggerate - but not much. I'm teaching Roman and Gothic this semester. So compare the previous Maize Order to this, the Alphabet Block Order. Both are creative adaptations of classical orders; my students too often like to say things like "they're incorrect" or "they're inaccurate," but the truth is that columns in the classical world were not nearly as standardized (and dull) as the diagrams might make us believe.
So this will be a semester of architectural exploration - and funky columns are part of the fun.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:31 PM | Comments (0)
Disease on the march
Just what the world needs -- totally drug resistant TB.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:45 PM
January 13, 2012
Back from D.C.
One of my first all-four-year alums,* Keith Castaldo, is now a member of the staff of a Representative -- and he invited me for a private tour of the Capitol! It was great fun and I saw all kinds of things I didn't even know existed! The photo is one of the Benjamin Latrobe Maize Order capitals.
*I got to these Colleges in the fall of 1999, and he got here in the fall of 2000, graduating in 2004.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:17 PM
Home!
And I don't intend to stir until mid-February!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 1:21 AM
January 10, 2012
The battle for open research data
The fight goes on. This is really important! Scientific publishers are really not on the side of good or progress--and they're certainly destroying the viability of academic and public libraries.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:20 AM
January 7, 2012
Academic Job Searches - Professors and Leaders
So I spent much of yesterday sorting through and reading files for the Early Modern Art History search --- completed files only, so far. There were definitely people who interested me! I suppose at least 2 other committee members (the two other art historians) will be reading them before we commit to Skype interviews in early February and then commit to campus visitors. I'm hopeful that having saved the Colleges money by doing the preliminary round via Skype we can bring in four instead of the usual three, but that remains to be seen. I'd like to have done those before College Art Association, but that may be too tight. Still, we're likely to have made an offer by early March!
AND - this afternoon I head down to DC. I'll spend a couple of nights with my sister and her crew in NoVA and then move into the District to join a committee of faculty, staff, and administrators to interview candidates for our Provost and Dean of Faculty position. Some searches have done off-site interviews at the Rochester or Syracuse airports, but as insurance against bad weather (which turns out to have been overly pessimistic) we're doing ours in DC. That's where the search firm is based, so at least we'll be able to use their conference room.
As soon as school starts up on the 18th of January the finalists will make their campus visits. The goal is to have a candidate approved by the Board at their late February meeting.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2012
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, selects her official charities
As is the custom with the British Royal Family, Kate Middleton has selected a number of charities to support. Art is one of her favorite interests, announced St. James Palace Thursday.She tapped the National Portrait Gallery, one of Britain's esteemed museums and one that holds decades of formal sittings of her new relations. Its collections go back to the 16th century but also includes contemporary cultural and political personalities.
I like art, too. I wonder if staff hands royals a menu ("choose two from column A and one from column B and one regiment") or if the royals actually get to select what interests them? And who arranges for royal patents on things like marmalade and tea?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:03 PM
January 4, 2012
Applications pour in . . .
It helps that the Colleges were closed and that I was away, but I came back to a full mailbox. Suddenly we have something like 15 complete applications for our Early Modern postion (Renaissance/Baroque). That means letter of application, CV, 3 recommendations, teaching statement, research statement) and 40 more partials. The deadline is 1/15, so we will get more!
There are certainly people who look interesting enough to interview!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 6:03 PM | Comments (1)
January 3, 2012
And . . . here!
Nine degrees.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:04 PM
Travel day!
Back to Geneva -- where the predicted high is 12 degrees! Oh, well.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:08 AM
January 2, 2012
Phone Shopping
One of those little parent-tasks we took care of today was getting Mother a new phone -- she'd had her's for 4 years, we figure, so the upgrade was free. She's got something with bigger numbers, a very clear screen, and no change to her current contract.
While we waited for the clerk to get her address book to move over from the SIM card to her phone I played with a Samsung Windows Phone. Gosh - I like the interface! The phone felt a little flimsy -- much lighter than an iPhone. But this would be very, very tempting!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 5:22 PM
I blame hiring coaches to teach high school history
"I want to be a part of history," said Casey Smith, a 31-year-old who was picking up some rum before a tailgate.
Atlanta legalizes Sunday liquor sales, and some people think that's really, really important.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:19 AM
January 1, 2012
Why Irish Soldiers who fought Hitler hid their medals
This kind of vindictiveness doesn't surprise me at all, but then I'm Scots-Irish, not Irish, and Roman Catholic by the grace of God, not by tribal affiliation. What kind of people preferred their good grudge against the British to defeating Hitler?
via Prof. Reynolds
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 7:31 PM
December 30, 2011
Cornell South beats out Stanford East
The Bloomberg Genius School competition chooses Cornell to spend piles of money in NYC. I blogged about the competition back in October. We will see how far $2 billion will go.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:43 AM
December 29, 2011
Detecting Brooches
Two silver brooches found by metal detector -- they look liveryish to me. The boar brooch (or is it a button? it looks like it has a loop to be sewn on) might be associated with Richard III, whose personal device was a white boar. The stag's head is less definite. Fun though!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 9:21 AM
December 28, 2011
You know the strange effect when a star of the past dies...and you didn't know he was still alive?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at 8:04 AM
