The academic life

A note on the old archive

After more than 8 years, I have deleted the old MovableType archive. You can still find them at https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.shermandorn.com/mt

Image from the old Comedy Central The Colbert Report, "The Word" segment, with "Children" as the title.

Dorn vs. Oliver

In May 2015, more than three years ago, the major segment of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight focused on standardized testing. Eighteen minutes is a lifetime on television, and in his segment Oliver argued that testing was not worth the pain or money. Critics in education policy world responded with serious quibbles, because I guess then we […]

First day of school, admin version

Today at Arizona State was the first day of classes in the fall semester. I know: a Thursday. Maybe Arthur Dent couldn’t get the hang of Thursdays, but we can.

How to write an external review letter

It is summer, and many of my tenured colleagues around the country are writing external review letters evaluating the scholarship of candidates for tenure or promotion. In an era with a shrinking proportion of academic jobs holding the chance of tenure, it becomes more important for those of us who hold tenure to understand the […]

Christina Sommers is not the typical target of attempts to suppress speech on campuses

This morning, New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait tried to address the question of political norms on the left in response to several academics and a few journalists who have pushed back against the idea that there is a free speech crisis on college campuses. The headlines of some of the pieces Chait is reponding to: People […]