Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

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…or, Something to keep you busy over the weekend…

…or, The Past Fortnight in the Theoblogosphere.

So, I’m putting this post up a day early because this year’s Karl Barth conference at Princeton Theological Seminary begins this Sunday. I’ll be there, and I look forward to doing some good mingling with folk while taking in some good lectures. It is not inconceivable that this will be my last Barth conference for a bit, so it will be a little bittersweet. In any case, I’ll try to blog it a bit. Also, if you're planning to be at the conference but haven't told me to keep an eye out for you yet, please do!

In any case, a funny thing happened when I finally got a teaching job, namely, I began reading the Chronicle of Higher Education. So I’ll begin with some interesting stuff from them:

  • The Value of a Humanities Degree - Six students weigh in on what their humanist studies mean to them as they move into the job market.
  • What We Take With Us - reflections from a retiring professor concerning the meaning of his life as an educator. I found this very interesting as one who is only just beginning such a life.
  • Tired of Writing for No Money - If you haven’t gotten the news that traditional tenure-track positions are getting rarer by the day, you might want to reflect on the significance of such information. As part of this trend, institutions of higher education are moving toward alternative employment models. The author of this piece finds himself in such a situation, where his job security does not depend upon publication in peer-reviewed journals in the same way that it might have a few decades ago. This gives him some interesting perspective on the practice of professional publication.
  • On Deadlines and Dead Grandmothers - An educator reflects on the relationship between professors and students, on the tenuous authority involved, and on the proper place for empathy.
  • Are Tutors the Academic Equivalent of Steroids? - This exploration is related to current admissions policies. Where once elite schools blatantly admitted only the moneyed and their progeny, this article notes that they continue that practice today although under a guise of meritocracy since it is the moneyed who can afford to provide their progeny with tutors to inflate their academic achievements. While we’re on the subject, we should talk about whether or not coffee or other caffeine consumption is similar to the use of steroids…

Now, for the usual assortment of interesting links:


Special mention:

  • Christina Busman, a doctoral candidate here at PTS (wow, can’t use that phrase much longer…), provides a two-part review of David Fitch’s work, The End of Evangelicalism. Part 1, and Part 2.
  • R. R. Reno recently published a piece in First Thing, entitled The Preferential Option for the Poor. A friend and I considered writing a response at the time of publication. Despite recognizing that a response was needed, we declined based on the sheer scatterbrained-ness of Reno’s article and the amount of other work already sitting on our plate. Thankfully, others were not deterred. Dan over at the blog, On Journying with those in Exile, has provided a penetrating response: R. R. Reno’s “Preferential Option for the Poor.” Be sure to read it, but you could skip reading Reno’s piece itself.

Here are a couple links just for fun:

  • Google Exodus - A depiction of what the Exodus might have looked like in a Web 2.0 world.
  • PhD Movie Trailer - I’ve been reading the PhD Comics strip for a while, and now some enterprising students have created a PhD Comics movie. View the trailer through the link, and then surf around a bit to learn how to schedule a screening of the movie at your institution of higher education.

Whew! If all that isn’t enough…you might consider checking out the serive, Dropbox.com, which provides a cloud and file synchronization service that makes using multiple computers a breeze. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now and it has been great. If you decide that you would like to try it, send me an e-mail (derevth [at] gmail [dot] com) and I’ll get you an invitation – that way, I get a little extra space for free! But if you would rather delve into the riches of DET’s archives, I recommend my reading guides for Barth, Calvin, and Torrance.


==================================

Comments

Derek said…
Travis,

Two Things:

1) Thanks for linking to my summer project, really appreciate it. Hoping to start getting posts rolling in the next couple days.

2) More importantly, congrats on the teaching position at Lindenwood! I wish you much success in Missouri! If you ever have to cross the border in my homeland (Kansas), I can help you with the lay of the land ;)
June 19, 2011 12:09 AM
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