The Emerging Scholars Blog

Sometimes, we all need help from the "hand of God."

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1. Faith and Freedom (Inside Higher Ed, June 9): Our brothers and sisters to the north are facing an interesting debate. The Canadian Association of University Teachers (the largest Canadian faculty association) has begun a campaign to “investigate” colleges and universities that require faculty to sign statements of faith, claiming that statements of faith are inherently inconsistent with academic freedom. Christian Higher Education Canada, an association of 33 Christian institutions (including Mike’s graduate alma mater) has responded with a call to discuss exactly what is meant by “academic freedom.”  CAUT’s position is clear:

“Nothing that calls itself a university should have a faith test. That’s just not acceptable.”

As we’ve seen in the CLS v. Martinez case, conflicts between secular and religious visions for education are here to stay for a while.

2.  Faculty Burnout Has Both External and Internal Sources, Scholar Says (Audrey Williams June, Chronicle, 6/9/2010).  Tom: I agree with the comment that more research is needed in this area.  I’d like to see a copy of Janie Crosmer’s paper. A short quote from her interview:

Q. What are the key things that contribute to faculty burnout?

A. Lack of time, poorly prepared students, cumbersome bureaucratic rules, high self expectations, unclear institutional expectations, and low salary. Research shows that the sources of stress have remained unchanged for 25 years. We know about the problem, but we’re not doing anything about it.

Any thoughts on whether academic burnout is unique?

Photo: Lego recreation of Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal from the 1986 World Cup. From a series of Lego versions of famous photos by Balakov on Flickr. HT: Alan Jacobs.

Read the rest of this entry »

A commonplace book from the 1620's, recording Francis Grosvenor's personal notes on witchcraft and geography

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1. The Collapse of Higher Education: Seth Godin on the coming melt-down in higher education:

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.

I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn.

[Editor's note: I'm not sure about the Galileo at Harvard claim, but Godin makes some very salient points in the rest of his post. ~ Mike]

2. Of the Making of Books: If you’re in literary studies, you probably love reading lists. Here’s a list of  books recommended by the Christianity & Literature listserv (HT: Mark Filiatreau). While you’re at it, check out the ESN Core Bibliography and our suggested readings for undergrads.

Teaser alert! We have in our possession a “Beginner’s Christian Bookshelf” reading list compiled by none other than the great Christian literary scholar David Lyle Jeffrey. It starts with Athanasius and ends with P. D. James. We’ll share it with you as soon as we’ve read all the books on it… Read the rest of this entry »

Great question.  Do you resonate with the response Rachel Toor received from a graduate class in physical education?

When we were wrapping up, I asked them a question: “What is your relationship to reading and writing?” At that moment, they morphed from T-shirt-clad physical specimens and became generic graduate students, indistinguishable from all-in-black, cigarette-smoking studiers of literary theory and bearded-and-geeky future scientists. It’s all we do, they wailed, and it’s hard. … The journal articles he makes us read (they said, directing accusing fingers at my colleague) are dense and boring. We’re getting good information, but it can be painful. And, they said, we have to learn to write like that. — Rachel Toor, Bad Writing and Bad Thinking, Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/15/2010.

What do you think about Toor’s thoughts on the topic?

No, I said, you don’t. … In 1946 he [George Orwell] wrote “Politics and the English Language,” an essay that explains the connections between bad writing and bad thinking as well as the political consequences: “Modern [insert the word "academic" here] English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional [or scholarly] writers.”

By writing prose that is nearly unintelligible not just to the general public, but also to graduate students and fellow academics in your discipline, you are not doing the work of advancing knowledge. And, honestly, you don’t really sound smart. I understand that there are ideas that are so difficult that their expression must be complex and dense. But I can tell you, after years of rejecting manuscripts submitted to university presses, most people’s ideas aren’t that brilliant.

Call me simple-minded, call me anti-intellectual, but I believe that most poor scholarly writing is a result of bad habits, of learning tricks of the academic trade as a way to try to fit in. And it’s a result of lazy thinking. Most of us know that we may not be writing as well as we could, or should. Many academics have told me that they suspect they are bad writers but don’t know how to get better. They are often desperate for help. I tell them to reread Strunk and White, and to take a look at “Politics and the English Language.” Yeah, yeah, they say, and get buried working toward the next submission deadline, prepping for the next class. … — Rachel Toor, Bad Writing and Bad Thinking, Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/15/2010.

Taking a step back to consider the bigger picture:

• How much attention do you give to reading and writing about your faith?
• What habits have you formed toward the end of good thinking and good writing?
• What encouragement/resources have you found a blessing in the development of these habits?
• How often and well do you articulate your faith among you colleagues?
• What resources/opportunities do you desire the Emerging Scholars Network to offer to assist you in the above areas?  Note:  If you have not already done such, please review Suggested ESN Readings from Urbana 09.

As I mentioned in Week in Review: Behold the Man Edition, I have been unable to put down Brian Godawa’s Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination (InterVarsity Press, 2009).*  Below is a quote relevant to Holy Week.**

Word Pictures book cover

One of the reasons why the Jews of the first century did not recognize the visitation of the Messiah was because even they took the Bible too literally.  Indeed, they were expecting a military or political king who would crush Rome (Dan 2:44-45), restore the nation of Israel back from exile into their land (Zeph 3:14-20), build a new kingdom on earth (Dan 7:14) from Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Is 52), rebuild the Temple (Ezek 40-48), reinstate the Davidic monarchy (Ps 89:38-51) in a new “age to come” (Is 61) — all based on Old Testament prophecy.  Even Jesus’ own disciples misunderstood the literary nature of these promises as literal earthly political power (Mt 20:20-28; Acts 1:6).  Jesus’ kingdom did crush Rome, though not through military revolution, Jesus did restore Israel, did rebuild the Temple (Acts 15:14-17), did reinstate the Davidic monarchy (Lk 1:32), and he is the King of kings who came to Mount Zion (Mt 21:5) and rules over all things at the right hand of his father (I Pet. 3:22).  He just didn’t do these things in the literal way that they had envisioned, but in a literary way.  We see how the literary meaning of Israel and the Temple was first fulfilled in Christ and is now fulfilled in the church as his “body” (Rom 2:28-29; Eph 2:19-22).  Christ’s rule in his kingdom may be current and real, but certainly not an earthly reign of outward political power (Lk 17:20-21).

As you might guess, this is part of a chapter which explores the Literal versus Literary reading of Scripture and Godawa has come to read the Bible literarily.  How do you read the Bible this Easter? Read the rest of this entry »

What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1.  Call for writers who can explore whole people immersed in the multifaceted nature of politics: Ready to answer the call or suggest a book/film which meets the challenge given by Ross Douthat in Hollywood’s Political Fictions (NY Times Op-Ed, 3/14/10)?

Explaining Why Americans Can’t Write Political Fiction in a 2005 essay for the Washington Monthly, Chris Lehmann noted the long-running tendency in American letters to depict politics as the preserve of debased cynics and moral monsters. … Lehmann suggested, they usually cast the entire mess as “a great ethical contaminant and task their protagonists with escaping its many perils with both their lives and their moral compasses intact.”  As it happens, this is a pretty good description of the arc of “Green Zone.” But it’s a lousy recipe for real art, which is supposed to be interested in the humanity of all its subjects, not just the ones who didn’t work for Rumsfeld’s Department of Defense.

2.  Will ‘The Dawn Treader’ Float? (Mark Moring, Christianity Today Magazine, 3/02/2010), Christian leaders get sneak peek of next Narnia movie, like what they see; filmmakers admit “mistakes” on Prince Caspian, vow to get it right this time. We’ll have a discussion about the upcoming film later in the year …
3.  Why There Is No Jewish Narnia (Micheal Weingad, Jewish Review of Books, No 1, Spring 2010).

So why don’t Jews write more fantasy literature? And a different, deeper but related question: why are there no works of modern fantasy that are profoundly Jewish in the way that, say, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is Christian? Why no Jewish Lewises, and why no Jewish Narnias?

My interest in these questions is partly personal. Tolkien and Lewis loomed large in my childhood and, as I read them to my own children, I wonder what they ought to mean to us as Jews. But my thoughts are also stimulated by the recent publication of some apparent exceptions to the rule: from the United States, The Magicians, a fantasy novel for adults by novelist and critic Lev Grossman, and from Israel, Hagar Yanai’s Ha-mayim she-bein ha-olamot (The Water Between the Worlds), the acclaimed second installation of a projected fantasy trilogy, which, when it is finished, will be the first such trilogy in Hebrew.

4. Evaporating First Amendment? (Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, March 18) – Jaschik takes a look at the case of Mike Adams, the conservative criminology professor at UNC-Wilmington who argues that he was denied promotion because of his conservative Christian beliefs. His lawsuit against the school was recently rejected by a federal judge. (See the Alliance Defense Fund’s statement on the ruling.)

5. Black Scholars and Professionals Conference: InterVarsity recently launched a new ministry to support, well, Black scholars and professionals. BSAP will be hosting a conference, Transforming Love and Truth: Self, Community, Vocation, in Cambridge, MA, on April 23 & 24. If you are in the Boston area, and you are or know African American students, faculty, or professionals who could benefit, you won’t want to miss it.

Books

Paul Froese, The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization – From Mike: I doubt that I’ll have time to dig into this, but it looks like a fascinating read: an account of the Soviet government’s attempts to eliminate religious belief and practice from its citizenry. (HT: Julie)

Update: 3/19/2010, 8:30 EST

How well does film convey material from classic literature? Can film be used to introduce a book and draw people into reading or does it stall the imagination, even inoculate against digging into the original text?  Any classroom or personal experience(s) to share?

What brings the question to mind? The recent release of the trailer for Tim Burton giving a stab at Alice in Wonderland (2010) with Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen) and Mia Wasikowska (Alice). With my 9 year old twins, I’d be Mad as a Hatter to introduce Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland w/this rendering of the classic tale,* but if I was a college professor hoping to stir interest in literature?  Hmm. …

*I’m not text only, I confess to enjoying a conversation regarding the value of John Tenniel’s illustrations ;-)

In my post last week about advice for undergraduates, Katie Weakland shared a comment that I thought was particularly apt:

I suggest meeting your major professors early in your career – your first semester – and asking them to mentor you and/or let you do research with them. The early you can get your feet wet with research the better. I also suggest reading the primary literature in your field as soon as possible.

Meeting your professors and starting research early are both very important (I have stories I could share for each), but for the moment, I’m going to focus on primary literature. Read the rest of this entry »

I feel I am closest to God when writing. You’re singing praises. You’re describing the world, as it is. And even if the passages turn out sordid or depressing, there’s something holy about the truth — John Updike, commenting when interviewed for NPR’s ‘Tell Me A Story,’ as reflected upon by the host, Marjorie Leet Ford, March 31, 2003.*

Over breakfast this morning, I read the NY Times article A Relentless Updike Mapped America’s Mysteries.  In addition, I watched the brief, but stimulating October 2008 interview of John Updike (1932-2009) focused upon the craft of fiction and the art of writing.  Hungry for more, I watched the A Life in Letters Interview. ** With regard to both pieces, I was struck by the wisdom of this 76 year old from central Pennsylvania (who moved north for a Harvard education and continued in suburban Massachusetts for writing and family life).  As for Updike’s Tour of Protestantism, I found a helpful piece in Religion & Ethics Newsweekly’s report on his 2004 presentation at the Center for Religious Inquiry, St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York City.

Any Updike fans/experts have thoughts to share regarding the film version of “The Witches of Eastwick” (1987) versus his 1984 book, his range of writing, his characters, his themes (and the research involved in them), his life, his faith?  I must confess that I’m not very familiar with Updike and would love to learn more.  Teach me. Read the rest of this entry »

ESN member Madelaine Hron, assistant professor in the Department of English and Film at Wilfrid Lauriern University (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), just announced the release of Translating Pain: Immigrant Suffering in Literature & Culture (University of Toronto Press, February 12, 2009).

The book cover, the book title, and previous conversations with the author (extending back to her 2004-2005 post-doc at Carnegie Mellon University), led me to ask her whether she would be willing to share about her work with ESN.  Madelaine quickly responded by passing along the below summary and commenting that she would be happy to answer any questions folks may have regarding her new book. So if you have questions, post them.  Also, if you’d have interest in an on-line ESN reading group, let me know.  Note to faculty:  you might consider ordering it as an academic resource.

Translating Pain: Immigrant Suffering in Literature & Culture

In the post–Cold War, post–9/11 era, the immigrant experience has changed dramatically. Despite the recent successes of immigrant and world literatures, there has been little scholarship on how the hardships of immigration are conveyed in immigrant narratives. Translating Pain fills this gap by examining literature from Muslim North Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe to reveal the representation of immigrant suffering in fiction.

Applying immigrant psychology to literary analysis, Madelaine Hron examines the ways in which different forms of physical and psychological pain are expressed in a wide variety of texts. She juxtaposes post-colonial and post-communist concerns about immigration, and contrasts Muslim world views with those of Caribbean creolité and post–Cold War ethics. Demonstrating how pain is translated into literature, she explores the ways in which it also shapes narrative, culture, history, and politics.

A compelling and accessible study, Translating Pain is a groundbreaking work of literary and postcolonial studies. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is John Milton’s 400th birthday – or, rather, would have been. If you choose to celebrate this occasion, you can visit the John Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth, which contains ALL of Milton’s poetry (in English, Italian, Latin, and Greek) and selections from his prose, along with annotations.

(HT: The Wired Campus)