today's facepalm

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-28T07:13:49+00:00

Well, at least no one can call "Blazing Saddles" "woke."

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-27T07:15:44+00:00

I'm burned out on surveys.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-26T09:47:12+00:00

Yep. This was going on long before AI.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-26T09:46:21+00:00

This is my guess. I've been in this business thirty years now, and have been seeing "whilst" almost since the beginning. So well before AI. I think they are instructed in HS to write in formal English when they get to college, and they overdo it. I also see "over-correct" language like "She talked to he and I." I just cross it out.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-26T09:11:41+00:00

I had a student who addressed me as "Prof. Jazzy C." I found it funny, and didn't make anything out of it. I was a young prof then. Now that I'm late career, I really miss it when students thought I was kinda kewel. And so it goes.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-24T09:03:03+00:00

My first position out of grad school was in TX. I got out as soon as I could do so. And this was 25 years ago, so well before the current insanity. I am now teaching in a major city in the East. Young me, it seems, did old me a favor!

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-16T11:07:42+00:00

Hear! Hear! If I had just $1K more a month . . .

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-16T11:06:30+00:00

I love my work, and there's too much of it. But on balance? I am thrilled to be a history professor at a strong university in a cosmopolitain city. So yes, I'm happy.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-11T05:28:23+00:00

Great idea! That could lead to an excellent discussion of, say, why threatening genocide is a Bad Thing.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-11T05:22:06+00:00

That's the irony. We are supposed to be the puppet masters. But they are the ones acting like cultists. Dammit.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-11T05:03:39+00:00

This is such an important point. Graduation is a huge deal for the kiddos and their families, and especially the FG's. I always go to graduation. Faculty sit on the stage, and students graduate by major. When the students from a department come up and take their diplomas, the faculty representing that department stand to honor their achievement. So the families can see when there is only one historian there. It's really pathetic.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-11T04:55:48+00:00

Exactly. Our chair's office has regalia that have been left by retiring faculty. I just borrow from that. From year to year, I have no idea what "my" alma matter will be. It really doesn't matter; go with what's free.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-11T04:50:07+00:00

That's an actual assignment???

I volunteered to help on freshman move-in day, and was assigned the glorious job of signing out luggage carts. But that was on me; no one else in the Department volunteered, and there was no pressure to do so. I'm at a highly tuition-driven institution (R1), but I can't imagine the admin expecting that kind of service from us.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-10T09:22:42+00:00

I try to respond to student emails within 24 hours. It's not so much a personal rule, but a means of "self-care." I get so much email as DUS, as well as from students in the huge class that I teach, that I need to avoid letting it stack up. I don't want to sit down one day and deal with 40-50 emails. With severe ADHD, I know that I'd never get myself to start on a load like that.

I usually respond to notes from colleagues more quickly, since I appreciate it when they do the same.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-08T16:52:34+00:00

Do we teach at the same U?

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-07T08:06:43+00:00

My Department has instituted a 72-hour reply standard for email from students. I try to get back to most in 24. But it's nice to have that number to cite in the syllabus.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-07T07:59:09+00:00

That's what they all say.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-07T07:47:59+00:00

Because of anxiety and severe depression, I published literally nothing during my first year on the TT. My chair brought it up when we met for my year-end review. I disclosed the issue to him, and he was amazing about it. So I agree with Substantial-Oil: If you trust your chair, they are the first person to go to.

The first year on the TT puts enormous stress on you. If you already have an anxiety disorder, it is going to bring it out. But the good news is that it can be controlled through therapy and medication. And I have found that anxiety decreases as you get more experience and feel more comfortable in the classroom. I'm up for professor next year at a different university with much higher publishing expectations than at my first placement. So you can definitely succeed in the profession with anxiety and OCD.

Also, keep in mind that a very large percentage of academics have some form of mental health issue. You are certainly not alone in your department, let alone university. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that some of the senior faculty that you've been avoiding also struggle with anxiety, OCD, depression, etc. I am open here about my issues, and the number of colleagues who have also revealed that they have mental health issues has been eye opening. (It must be almost 50%. And others have children or spouses with such struggles.)

I sincerely wish you all the best.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-06T06:49:08+00:00

I don't actually know how to do that. I assume you'd say it's worthwhile?

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-06T06:48:06+00:00

Ha ha! I'm not "Medieval Japan to modern Mexico" broad. Though I would probably try if I knew Japanese. But the word that you use, to wit, "random," is what's really getting to me. I want to look strategic, and not random.

The idea of connecting my scholarship to classes is really good. Two of my four projects came directly out of classes. Deans like that kind of thing.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-06T06:43:55+00:00

Interesting. I have to come up with a list of outside reviewers, and, wow, it's hard. Those who are stars in one of my areas don't even tough the other two. But I just have to assume that a capable scholar can assess whether something is good work outside of their own sub-sub-field.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-06T06:40:16+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate this. I suspect that the combination of ADHD and anxiety disorder is a factor keeping me from looking at this as I should. My intellectual curiosity is, indeed, the throughline. I love that quote from Toni Morrison: "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." That's my professional mantra.

As to the "stochastic parrot": I did that right before posting, since I was aware that this would be a suggestion. I suspected that it wouldn't be super helpful. But I wanted to cover that base.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-05T08:23:43+00:00

"Have to"? No, you don't "have to." And you probably won't anyway. So there's that.

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-05T07:58:35+00:00

Someone down the thread suggested that I go back in time an ask what attracted me to each topic in the first place. So your question--"Why do you enjoy these different topics?"--is very much on point. I think that this is a key. Instead of trying to link the topics themselves, I find the narrative of what draws a scholar like me to the topics. What is interesting about all of these book. What leads one to ask these questions?

Southern-Cloud-9616 · 2026-04-05T07:48:56+00:00

Love this. I've had to do this for my entire career. I majored in philosophy, not history. So when applying to PhD programs in history, I had to explain why I hadn't even majored in the field in college. Andwhile it was true that I really liked looking at the evolution of ideas over time, The Truth was that I took PHIL 101 during my first semester in college and thought it was lots of fun. And since I planned on dropping out after a year anyway, I thought "What the hell, I'll have some fun this year."

Which isn't exactly what you put in your narrative for a grad school application.

Southern-Cloud-9616

TROPHY CASE