It’s 1:00am, and I can’t sleep. I went to sleep early to be ready for the first day of the new semester. And for the past hour, I’ve been thinking about one thing and one thing only… Domino’s Pizza!
continue readingPublic Humanities and The US Constitution
After much deliberation and contemplation, I have (slightly) narrowed my academic interests in intention and origin to focus specifically on the interpretation of the US Constitution. I remain at the tip of the research iceberg but recently stumbled upon a public/digital humanities project that tries to translate the constitution into a more accessible and informative […]
continue readingWhose Preferred Edition?
After another unnecessary trip to the bookstore last semester (I have a bad habit of buying more books than I have time to read), I finally sat down with American Gods, a Neil Gaiman novel turned Starz series, at the suggestion of Prof. McCutcheon. Though the title and premise of the book certainly correlates to […]
continue reading“People imagine and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen”
I remarked over on Twitter the other day that there’s a curious correspondence between two shows that are now streaming online. For both “Happy” and “American Gods” are about non-obvious beings who exist solely because people believe in them — cease believing in them, whether a child’s imaginary friend or a god, and they are […]
continue readingA Response to “Responsible Research Practices,” Part 5: Sources and Interpretations
This is an installment in an ongoing series on the American Academy of Religion’s recently released draft statement on research responsibilities. An index of the complete series (updated as each article is posted) can be found here. What should be clear from my previous comments is that I don’t think the draft document simply needs […]
continue readingOutside the Box
On the flight home from a visit to Lehigh University this past week I started reading Steven Johnson’s engaging How We Got to Now (2014) — a popularly-written book on the conditions and unanticipated connections that helped to make possible the innovations that many of us now take for granted (e.g., public sanitation or refrigeration).
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