creative class
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A colleague of mine commented today on facebook that it is better to give than receive, and this is particularly true during exams. But I often find myself nervous to see how my students perform. Did my intentions for their learning get realized? This semester I taught a new course on Community Arts that had…
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Limitless opportunity creates incapacitating uncertainty. The academic job market has bottomed out due to the Great Recession, but it has been faltering for years as universities, like other industries, turn toward part-time contract workers. Recent PhDs, primed for a lifetime of learning and knowledge production within the institution of academia, have diminishing opportunities to put…
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The annual meeting of sociologists offers both intellectual inspiration and anxiety as both new and established scholars try to connect with others in a sea of over 6,000 colleagues. I felt in the thick of it this year as a presenter, job seeker and attendee. My concerns about the grim job market were calmed by…
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This past summer, I taught a course in the Sociology of Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In this class we discussed issues of urban space, development and consumption from the perspective of cultural sociology. After reading Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class and Sharon Zukin’s chapter on North Adams in the Cultures of…
