Professional Academy

Professional Philosophy: 99% White But 100% Anti-Racist

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Professional Academy, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Since this is my first entry of 2016, I want to begin by noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of blogging for me here at RMWMTMBM. There have been some prolific years (2008-2010) and some lean years (2012), but I’m proud to have kept this site more or less active and, with a…

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How To Score An Academic Meeting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Professional Academy, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

I do not, in principle, hate academic faculty or departmental meetings. In fact, as someone who (many of my friends have rightly dubbed) a “certifiably pathological proceduralist“– no kidding, I would voluntarily stand out on the corner and pass out Roberts Rules of Order like evangelists pass out Bible tracts– I genuinely (ahem, naively) look…

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The Material Conditions of Grade Inflation

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Labor Issues, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Professional Academy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

One of my colleagues, Jeff Gross (Asst Professor of American Literature and Culture), posted a really excellent essay entitled “Rethinking Grades” earlier today, which I want to recommend that everyone (especially educators in Tennessee) read post haste.  There, he raises a number of questions about how we think about the phenomenon, widespread in higher education today,…

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The Leigh Johnson Mystery

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Labor Issues, Leiter, Philosophy, Politics, Professional Academy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

Here’s the thing everyone needs to understand before s/he starts picking a fight: you can only back people into a corner so far before they come out swinging. UChicago law professor Brian Leiter has decided to pick a fight with me in a comment thread on his blog here. There, in a moderated thread allegedly addressing “issues…

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It’s the Exploited Labor, Stupid

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 99%, Labor Issues, Philosophy, Politics, Professional Academy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

Despite much well-earned Sturm und Drang in the last few years surrounding the so-called crisis in the humanities, the regrettably pernicious corporatization of higher education, the imminent death of American universities, the (at turns, but more often in conjunction) sexist, racist, homophobic, classist and just garden-variety asshole-ish paucity of civility/collegiality in academia— especially in the discipline of Philosophy—  I sometimes fear we…

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