What a difference a week makes! Last week I was focused on book reviews and readings, and my blog could have highlighted the volleyball team’s Little Three Championship or the fact that Eve Shockley’s book of poems (published by Wesleyan University Press) is nominated for a National Book Award. But world events have overtaken the usual news from campus. … Read more
I’m tired of writing these sad posts, and I know you must be tired of reading responses to the outbursts of violence that plague our country’s communities. I was a few miles away from Monterey Park over the weekend, adjacent to the violent tragedy. There is relief now that the shooter is no longer a … Read more
Recently some students came to see me about their fear that antisemitism might be growing at Wesleyan. They were cautious about making any claim, knowing that this university has been a welcoming place for Jewish students, faculty, and staff for about fifty years now. Yet they were also aware that Wesleyan is no bubble, and … Read more
Over the years, I have had several students from Iran in my online classes at Coursera. Lately, I’ve been reading about student political action at Sharif University in Tehran with a mixture of admiration and horror. Admiration, since the students there have shown such courage in their protests since the funeral of Mahsa Amini a … Read more
It’s Commencement season, and in speech after speech graduates are told that they can change the world, that they can carve their own paths, that their generation will address the massive problems left to them by others. As educators, we want our students to feel hopeful and creative — not complacent or fatalistic. But it’s … Read more
The news is gut wrenching. I have been visiting my 94-year-old mother and suddenly we heard the awful bulletin of children being shot. This time Texas. This time also a teacher; this time also a grandmother. Many commentators have underscored that the United States is alone among industrialized countries to prioritize access to guns over … Read more
How to respond to yet another mass shooting? First, we can express sorrow and convey our sympathies to those immediately affected by the violence. The black Buffalo community that was attacked yesterday is suffering, and it will take a long time to heal. Compassion for their anguish is the least we can offer, and we … Read more
Last weekend was Memorial Day, and I published this book review on memory and monuments in the Wall Street Journal.
Over the last year, many of us have felt uncomfortably close to the places where suffering, abuse and neglect are part of daily life.
I want to call everyone’s attention to the impressive programming planned by students, staff and faculty for Black History Month.
