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 readingBingo
For the past few years different versions of a conference bingo card have been making the rounds on social media, with squares to check off for things like “Question that’s not a question” or “All male panel” and other sorts of typical conference experiences that many of us know all too well. In time for […]
continue readingGrad Tales is Back!
Interviewed by Kim Davis (BA 2003), Jennifer Alfano Nelson (BA 2007) was the Department’s guest at the first Grad Tales of the new year, held in the Ferguson Student Union last night. Now hosted by the Department’s recently-formed Alumni Liaison Committee (of which both Jennifer and Kim are members), Grad Tales is an ongoing series […]
continue readingTaco Insights on Faculty Service
With the start of another school year right around the corner I’m thinking about service — one of those three main areas into which scholars usually divide up their work (the others being research and teaching, of course — and the order in which they’re written is not insignificant). It’s not hard to find faculty […]
continue readingWhose Evangelicalism is in Ruins?
The American Academy of Religion, the national scholarly association for religious studies in America, just sent out its program of plenary addresses for its upcoming annual meeting this November. The abstract for David Gushee’s Presidential Address caught my eye. There are a number of things to say about this. First of all, I told ya’ll […]
continue readingThe Problem of First Person Authority
If you’ve paid attention to the news in the US over the past week or so, you’ll know that a bomber was loose in Austin, Texas, and that the suspect was cornered by authorities the other day and blew himself up.
continue readingLooking Over and Overlooking
Thanks @McCutcheonSays for this mention of my online syllabus, in his discussion of Janet Jakobsen’s piece on relhttps://t.co/EkJiVE3hPM — Malory Nye (@malorynye) October 1, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Malory Nye’s tweet, the other day, got me thinking… So I replied: For a while, now, I’ve had this feeling: as happens with any new and successfully reproduced social […]
continue readingUnderstanding Our Present Moment
My colleague tweeted the following the other day: If only there was an academic discipline that studied myth, history, and meaning-making that could say something about these monuments. — Michael J. Altman (@MichaelJAltman) August 17, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js It was a bit tongue-in-cheek to be sure, but it made a good point, I think, as he […]
continue readingA Lesson in Comparison
Yes, that’s the reaction Symone Sanders had to her fellow CNN commentator’s comments favorably comparing Donald Trump to Martin Luther King. Didn’t catch this yesterday, or the fall out for much of the rest of the day?
continue reading“The Craziest Thing I’ve Ever Seen”
Over on social media the other day, I came across the following tweet, posted at NPR’s site. These turkeys trying to give this cat its 10th life pic.twitter.com/VBM7t4MZYr — J… (@TheReal_JDavis) March 2, 2017 My comment, used above as this post’s opening pic, wasn’t completely sarcastic.
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