Year: 2011

The Material Infrastructure of the Internet

Like most people, I presume, I have a tendency to think about “the Internet” or “cyberspace” or the “virtual world” as something fundamentally non-material. I type emails, I post on my Facebook page or this blog, I search and find things on Google, and it seems to me each time as if every strike of…

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Why I Stood With The Students

As I reported in my previous post, students at my college organized an event last Monday night, the Rhodes Solidarity Vigil, which was meant to demonstrate solidarity with the nonviolent student protesters at UC-Davis (and elsewhere) who were brutalized by police while peacefully exercising their right to assemble. This is why I stood with the…

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Solidarity

This past Monday, November 21, students at Rhodes College organized a candlelight vigil to show their solidarity with the student protesters at UC-Davis who were assaulted by police while nonviolently protesting on November 18. Rhodes’ event was an answer to the call sent out by Occupy Colleges, the student wing of the Occupy Movement, asking…

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Beautiful Politics

Please, please take 4 minutes and 29 seconds out of your day and watch this.

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Dr. J Catches Up

It’s been too, too long since I’ve posted here. Two whole months, in fact. [Insert standard excuse about being too busy.] My absence was particularly egregious this time, since my last posts, back in September, left a few issues hanging. (Just as an aside, it’s hard for me to believe that the last time I…

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Leiter v. Alcoff, Part Two: The Context (or, Why This Isn’t Simply A “He Said, She Said” Story)

Okay, if you haven’t read Part One of this series, you should go back and do so. Otherwise, the following won’t make much sense. If you have read Part One, and if you don’t already have a dog in this fight, you may be wondering: what exactly is the big deal here? So what, two…

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Leiter v. Alcoff, Part One: The Basics

Now that things have quieted down a bit, and in response to readers who’ve been asking me to do this for a while, I’ve decided to offer a few reflections on the recent (and very public) kerfuffle between Brian Leiter and Linda Alcoff. I expect that most of you who aren’t professional philosophers don’t have…

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5 Years, 100K Hits

Five years ago this month, I began this blog. At the time, I was in the final stretch of writing my dissertation and entering the job market. The title that I gave to the blog had been a personal mantra of mine for a long time, something I had scribbled down on a piece of…

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31 Days in Seuss, Day 12: My Scariest Moment

Still trying to catch up on the 31 Days in Seuss Challenge, but I’m determined to get them all done before the end of the month! I posted the whole (non-rhymed) account of today’s story on my blog before. It’s here if you’re interested, but here it is in verse: MY SCARIEST MOMENTHere’s a true…

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31 Days in Seuss, Day 11: My Excellent Adventure

MY EXCELLENT ADVENTUREIt’s hard to think of an adventure I’ve hadThat might count as “excellent,” like, totally radI mean, I once skydived (or is it “skydove”?).On a dare I once at a whole garlic clove.I ran away once. Out the window I flew!(But I was back in two hours, and nobody knew.)I drove from Memphis…

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