Tuesday Notes

by Cliopatria

David Andreatta,"HS Spurs Furor with Cuba Trip," NY Post, 16 April. Nathan Turner, a history teacher at the exclusive public Beacon School on Manhattan's upper West Side, took group of his students on a field trip to Cuba from 1-10 April. They were detained by American officials in the Bahamas on their return and now face fines of up to $65,000 per person.

The Pulitzer Prizes for 2007 were announced yesterday. Brett Blackledge's reports on cronyism and corruption in Alabama's community college system for the Birmingham News won the prize for Investigative Journalism; Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe won the prize in National Reporting for his reports on President Bush's abuse of"signing statements"; Gene Roberts' and Hank Klibanoff's The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation won the prize for History; Debby Applegate's The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher won the prize for Biography or Autobiography; and Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 won the prize for General Non-Fiction. See also: NYT

W. A. Pannapacker,"The Inescapability of Your Past," CHE, 20 April (free link to non-subscribers), is a very wise essay. I could tell you about it.

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Jonathan Dresner - 4/18/2007

Actually, I though Pannapacker softpedaled it: he didn't even mention all the trouble you can get into in committees, by taking public stands, or by being more productive than your tenured colleagues. I've seen all of those torpedo careers, at least in the short term.

Man, I feel old.

Manan Ahmed - 4/17/2007

Add me as your friend. Quick.

Rebecca Anne Goetz - 4/17/2007

I agree, Manan!

As a recent but enthusiastic devotee of Facebook, I have a lot to say about that venue as well--it isn't nearly as scary as IHE or CHE want it to be!

Manan Ahmed - 4/17/2007

I thought it was way too alarmist. Certainly, it is no Ivan Tribble - and makes some fair points - but, in the end it goes back to "Cocoon Yourself Young Academic" scenarios. Just not an option, for some of us.

Maybe a symposium is in order?

Jonathan Dresner - 4/17/2007

Everything you say can be held against you, and you are required to say things all the time. It's a hard lesson for academics to learn that freedom of speech — without the most vigilant forethought — is really the last thing one wants to exercise if one desires a reasonably secure and successful career as a professor.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Not in public, anyway.