Micro and Macro

  1.  The standout part of the Harrassment Training was the video on microaggressions. 
  2. My version of that is when I am said to be intellectual and smart. Often it is less a compliment than a microaggression. I first recall being told I was smart when I was an assistant professor, by a friend/colleague, and it was meant as a genuine description--I had always known really talented people since I was exposed to them from places other than my high school, and then in college. I surely was  and am not in their league, neither so smart or sophisticated.
  3. We know that "smart" or other such terms were used to describe Jewish academics, and it was generally not at all a compliment, meaning uncouth and just intelligent. The Soviet Union specialized in this as did the Third Reich, so supplying the US with some of its greatest scientists and mathematicians. In general, until about 1955-1960 the Ivies were not exact so welcoming of Jews, for which see Karabel, The Chosen.https://www.amazon.com/Chosen-History-Admission-Exclusion-Princeton/dp/061877355X/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?keywords=harvard+yale+ivy+jewish+jes&qid=1575824114&sr=8-1-fkmr2)  "Jews" often meant other ethnic/racial groups and women. 
  4. As for Macro: "Affirmative action," at least until about 1960, and likely still, has been mostly about those proverbial White Protestant Men--although fully qualified for the most part--never had to compete with "Jews." In any case, gays, women, blacks, etc, saved the humanities disciplines over the last thirty years.
  5. Also, there is macroeconomics and the Treasury, not to speak of Departments of State, Defense, Agriculture, Interior, perhaps Justice, whose policy issues are not much touched at many policy schools. I am not sure we can afford to allow for such lacunae

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Babies in your Life

I know a number of scholars who have young children, and by young I mean under 5 or 6. If they are women, they are likely to bear the major responsibility for bringing up their babies--this is conventional, and a man might well take on that role, but rarely does. Those women have vigorous careers and they are particularly strained. They may well feel something akin to guilt since they are away from the infants and toddlers much of the day, come home somewhat tired, and...  They may have helpful spouses, but that is not guaranteed. So, realize you are not alone among your colleagues, in your generation. You will need to get extra help, so you have time off on weekends to recharge, and help in the evening. Your children will grow up fine, knowing you love them. That's not the problem. As for men, if you are not the sole parent: Even if your spouse is actually staying at home with the babies, you want to take over as much as you can. At least one day each weekend, and several we...
Read more

Coho: Coho salmon, Cohomology, and Cohomosexuality

 Coho:  Coho salmon, Cohomology, and Cohomosexuality During their  ocean  phase, coho salmon have silver sides and dark-blue backs. During their spawning phase, their  jaws  and  teeth  become hooked. After entering fresh water, they develop bright-red sides, bluish-green heads and backs, dark bellies and dark spots on their backs. Sexually maturing fish develop a light-pink or rose shading along the belly, and the males may show a slight arching of the back. Mature adults have a pronounced red skin color with darker backs and average 28 inches (71 cm) and 7 to 11 pounds (3.2 to 5.0 kg), occasionally reaching up to 36 pounds (16 kg). They also develop a large  kype  (hooked beak) during spawning. [2]  Mature females may be darker than males, with both showing a pronounced hook on the nose. [3] Cohomology is the other side of homology theory in mathematics. Poincare developed homology theo...
Read more

The Road To Hell, and The Weather Along the Way

Would we be better off were we to swear off apocalyptic thinking? I have spent much of my research career thinking about  apocalyptic possibilities .  Each possibility has passed out of consideration , although the arguments have merit, and even the evidence is persuasive. The big question is when to constrain behavior, and if there is ever a time  when it is "too late" to act . Also, we are rather  weak at predicting technological developments  compared to sketching apocalypses, so the apocalypse tends to have a better argument than a more wait-and-see policy, or perhaps a deliberate research effort to develop those technologies (which may be a matter of societal arrangements rather than a material discovery). More generally,  t he prospect of apocalypse is used to  justify policies  and behavior that would otherwise seem not so prudent. The possibility of doom, if taken as a matter of  decision analysis , is fraught with uncer...
Read more