Guest blogging

If you want to read about capoeira, I have done one (and will do more) guest posts over at the Quintal New York blog. My first entry is on making capoeira cordaos. Take a look at the other stuff, including some really nice capoeira photography.

New blog

I'd like to introduce everyone to my shiny new blog - Higher Ed Data. Over there, I'll talk about issues of finding, using, and displaying data in higher education research. If that's your thing, take a look!

Reading women in 2012

In 2012, I embarked on a project to read only novels by women for a year. So over the course of twelve months, I read some short stories and non-fiction by men, but all the novels were written by women. I read forgotten classics, lowbrow genre, literary spec fic, YA, NYT best-selling Real Literature, and highbrow genre. I read some books I hated (The Colony), some I forgot as soon as I turned the final page (A Discovery of Witches), and some I loved (Zazen). I read famous authors (Barbara Kingsolver) and obscure (Regina O'Melveny). Some classics I intended to read I didn't get to because they are hard to find anywhere but Amazon. And plenty of interesting new books by men came out that I had to post to my wishlist for 2013. I still am processing what I learned from the experience, but here are the top novels I read, in no particular order:

• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh
• Zazen by Vanessa Veselka
• Giant by Edna Ferber
• The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
• A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Circumnavigation III

Remember, ages ago, I attempted to circumnavigate Manhattan, but gave up? Then again in the summer I started where I left off, but gave up because walking without shade when it's over 90F out is just dumb. Well, today I gave it another go. I wasn't committed to the full eight miles remaining. But I needed some gentle cardio and can't wear a backpack at the moment, so I decided to do as much as I felt like. I started back at Lincoln Center and headed south along the Hudson.

Only ten blocks in I saw this super-cool bottle/submarine. The inside is kitted out like a stainless steel personal submarine. (And, yes, a little later I saw an actual submarine at the Intrepid museum.) The weather was actually pleasant and sunny, despite it being winter. I walked as far as Chelsea Piers, which I had never been to previously. I decided at that point to cut over to the subway, but changed my mind and headed up the High Line instead.

I haven't actually been on the High Line in two years, and a new section has opened up. I took it to the end and then caught the train at 34th St. So, I still have to do the Chelsea Piers-South Ferry segment. Another day!

Campus Life

I recently finished Helen Horowitz's Campus Life, a history of the campus life of the American undergraduate. The book was published in 1987, so as another scholar mentioned via Facebook, it's not exactly up-to-date. Certainly, there have been changes in college life in the interim 25 years: Residence hall life is considerably plusher, the internet has changed life on and off campus, and the preppy look she describes as ascendant in 1983 has contracted to its New England roots. But what struck me forcefully is how little the underlying college culture has changed. Horowitz breaks students into three categories: Joe Colleges, who tend to come from the upper strata, in college to have a pleasant social experience, and are big joiners; the outsiders, who either can't afford, are refused, or don't wish to "join" and instead focus on their schoolwork; and the rebels, either political or artistic, who had their moments of glory in the 1930s and 1960s. At the end of the book she describes the New Outsiders, ascendant in the 1980s, who are focused on their grades, albeit for vocational reasons rather than as mere signifiers of learning. To the extent that some of them are joiners, it's because the activity will help them get ahead. Sound familiar? Here's more:

• In addition to including students from lower-class backgrounds who are aiming at upward mobility, the New Outsiders also include middle- and middle-upper-class students concerned about downward mobility
• A tight job market that increasingly requires graduate degrees, although law school is looking less desirable as "firms are saturated" (p. 286)
• Grade inflation, grade-grubbing, and cheating
• Participation in extracurriculars, including Greek life, because it looks good on the resume
• High levels of student anxiety, coupled with "partying" that seems more like the pursuit of fun than actual fun
• "Today's New Outsiders seem content to remain emotionally and economically dependent on their parents" (p. 271)

Has college culture really been stable for a quarter-century? And, if so, what will dislodge the current culture?