technology & the social » academia

The value of a Ph.D.

Ericka — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:50:29 +0000

Just another reminder that I’m not in this for the money. A recent ad for a part-time instructor job:

The current pay rate for these positions is $4000 per course for those without doctorates and $4500 per course for those with doctorates.

Yes, that home page from 1998 is still there

Ericka — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:57:27 +0000

I’ve been looking through a number of professors’ web pages recently, and I just want to let you all know, that home page from 1998 is still there. It’s the first thing people look at when they look you up. Even if other things rank higher, people who want to know something about you are going to that page – the one with all of the “under construction” icons on there for the past 8 years.

Aoir Conference

Ericka — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 04:52:33 +0000

My head is swimming with new ideas and I’m not quite yet to the point where I can focus. I’ve had some great conversations over the past few days – some with folks I’ve communicated with online before, some of whom I’ve read their work, others that I will read and plan to correspond with. It’s been such a great opportunity to have an international conference right here in Chicago during my time in the masters program here.

I must say a few words about the keynote Friday from Saskia Sassen (the U of Chicago Sociologist) which was just completely fascinating. I was struck by her interdisciplinary experience and mastery of theory and willingness to bring it into the real world. I’m really looking forward to reading Digital Formations. I was also fortunate enough to be invited to lunch with her afterward. She asked each of the graduate students (there were about five of us) about our work and I was able to explain my thesis project – which is sometimes difficult for me – and she was very helpful and encouraging. It was quite an experience.

Teaching the Wikipedia

Ericka — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:20:15 +0000

I teach a public speaking & rhetoric class in college, and I’m grading the first batch of speeches which are on a topic of the student’s choosing but must be focused on social science. I’ve got about 15-20% of the speeches that uncritically cite the Wikipedia – clearly treating it as just another encyclopedia without knowledge of how it is written – or at least no mention of this.

What I’m doing is explaining what it is and that it’s a good place to look for background info but that they need to cite the original resources to use the material in their speeches. I’d also encourage them to do this for any encyclopedic sources. I could think of scenarios where it might be acceptable to cite the Wikipedia as proof of norms.

So next week I’m going to discuss this with my classes along with more on source credibility generally.

Any suggestions? How have you handled this? (I’m particularly interested in responses from other Wikipedia contributors.)