Since this is a contribution to Geoffrey Khan's Festschrift, I personalized it and mused a bit about what it means to conduct "fieldwork" in times such as these.

was part of MGMT's "cost cutting strategy" until we renegotiated our contract to prohibit this practice.

YMMV, especially if your workplace isn't organized. 2/2

Much, much cheaper, especially if TAs are part of the bargaining unit. TA-ships generally pay more than p/t lectureships, come with benefits, and sometimes even a tuition waiver. In fact, the difference was so great that at my institution cutting TA-ships and offering students adjunct positions 1/2

At a reception last night, a colleague of mine, an English professor at my institution, told me that she has totally blocked out the news media since the Inauguration but caught a clip of Jon Stewart talking about Musk's Nazi salute. She was totally unaware of everything else that has been going on.

USian democracy, at least. All autocratic states today profess democratic values. The fact that the USian legislature can pass a bill, which was challenged and approved by the judiciary, only to be negated by an executive order vividly illustrates that the US is in fact a member of that club.

I never made that connection! We know much of what we know about Mandaeans, the last surviving Gnostic community from the ancient world, thanks to the efforts of those Barefoot Carmelites back in the 16th and 17th centuries.

I really liked her Experimental Film, which I assume you must have read. It reminded me a bit of Thomas Roszak's Flicker, which you'd probably like if you haven't read it, and also Archive 81, a Netflix series that was well-received but unsurprisingly canned.