Leigh M. Johnson

Why I Chose Memphis: Kerry Keeble Russ

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, RMWMTMBM Archive, Why I Chose Memphis Comments Off on Why I Chose Memphis: Kerry Keeble Russ

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have the good fortune to read (and share) all of these “Why I Chose Memphis” stories… and from such a wide variety of people! Our next installment comes from Kerry Keeble Russ. Kerry moved every two years for 15 years before landing in Memphis is 2002….

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Notes From the Other Side of the Job Market

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 3 Comments

In my first 3 years at my current position, I served on 2 tenure-track search committees, a process that literally took up every spare moment of my time (and many non-spare moments) for the 4 or 5 months that it lasted. Although I certainly learned a lot in my time on SLAC Search Committees– including,…

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Why I Chose Memphis: Michael Hughes

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, RMWMTMBM Archive, Why I Chose Memphis Comments Off on Why I Chose Memphis: Michael Hughes

Michael Hughes– sommelier, food critic, Midtowner, the friendliest face at Joe’s and author of the Memphis food-and-wine blog Midtown Stomp— offers up the following account of why he chose Memphis: “I don’t know if I necessarily chose Memphis or if it chose me. When I would visit here in college I always felt for lack…

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Why I Chose Memphis: Liz Dagget

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, RMWMTMBM Archive, Why I Chose Memphis Comments Off on Why I Chose Memphis: Liz Dagget

So, no sooner did I send out the request for readers to submit their own “Why I Chose Memphis” accounts than the responses started pouring in. Here’s the first from Liz Dagget (pictured left), Assistant Professor in the Rhodes College Art Department and Director of CODA (Center for Outreach and Development of the Arts). In…

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Why I Chose Memphis: Dr. J

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Memphis, RMWMTMBM Archive, Why I Chose Memphis Comments Off on Why I Chose Memphis: Dr. J

This post is a (bit delayed) response to fellow-blogger JLotz’s Quick Memphian Call to Arms, which she posted over on her (excellent) blog Waves and Wires. JLotz recently turned down a couple of lucrative and promising job offers in D.C. and Baltimore in order to take a position here in Memphis, and she decided to…

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Democratic Political Playbook (Revised, 2010)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Obama, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 4 Comments

It shouldn’t come as any surpise that the “Red Wave” did, as predicted, wash ashore in Washington, DC after polls closed on the 2010 midterm elections last Tuesday. Although Democrats managed to hang on to 51 Senate seats, they lost their “house” (a trauma all-too-familiar to many of their constituents). Republican, Tea Party and Independent…

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The Many Faces of You, America

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues Comments Off on The Many Faces of You, America

I’ve tried to refrain from commenting here upon the complete train-wreck that is (“surprise” Senate primary winner from Delaware) Christine O’Donnell, but a self-respecting political blogger can only be reasonably expected to hold out for so long. We’re all aware of the catalog of crazy things that have somehow made their way out of Christine…

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The King, The Clown, The Colonel: Axis of Evil?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 7 Comments

There are debates about a few really important issues that have a tendency after a while to fade into a kind of white noise for me. I generally find this to be true about debates over capital punishment, abortion, the existence or nonexistence of God, and the legalization of drugs. It’s not that I think…

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What Is Philosophy?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 18 Comments

A strange confluence of events recently has led me to consider more seriously the question above: What is philosophy? One might think that this is a perennial question within the discipline of Philosophy, but one would be wrong. Truth is, most of us (professional philosophers) are too busy teaching/researching/thinking about our own projects, the history…

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REPOST: Picking A Fight… Like A Girl

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Women and Gender Issues 4 Comments

[NOTE: This is a post that was originally published on this blog a year ago (10/08/09), which I am re-posting now because of recent interest in the newly-developed and eminently revealing What Is It Like To Be A Woman In Philosophy? blog. It is interesting to me to see this issue resurface with such force…

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