Yearly Archives: 2010

Profitable Humanities, Cont.

By devan | Published: March 26, 2010

Since it came up in a discussion of my previous post (and in the comments there), here’s my position on the bigger question (that is, should we be measuring the worth of the English department [or others] in financial terms?): For me, the problems with addressing the financial value of the humanities are two: first, [...]

Posted in Business, Education | Leave a comment

Profitable Humanities: Too Good to be True?

By devan | Published: March 25, 2010

At first, I was entranced by a piece in UCLA Today about the extent to which departments in the hard sciences do or do not subsidize humanities departments. In it, Robert Watson, a professor of English at UCLA, notes that based on student fees and expenses, the English department there profited by $5.5 million (about [...]

Posted in Business, Education | 2 Comments

Cocktail: The Spanish Ginquisition

By devan | Published: March 23, 2010

With apologies to certain detractors, who (probably rightly) insist that spicy drinks are best made from a base of vodka or tequila, I offer you a new cocktail, the Spanish Ginquisition. I faced the strong temptation to be standoffish and include a garnish of Serrano ham or a healthy dollop of paella, but this drink [...]

Posted in Life | 4 Comments

Problems & Process: An Open Letter to Facebook

By devan | Published: February 9, 2010

Dear Facebook user experience team*, Just in case you’re listening, here’s what I hope will be a specific, constructive critique of your recent changes—instead of so much more of the caps-lock venting that seems such a common response to your work. I’ll start small and work my way to the bigger issues; if you want [...]

Posted in Business, Web | 4 Comments

The Truth as Stronger than Fiction

By devan | Published: January 18, 2010

In this week’s New Yorker, Daniel Mendelsohn has a fascinating look at the ancient and recent histories of the memoir genre. Naturally, he can’t help but address what might now be termed a subgenre, the “fraudulent memoir.” Wrapping up the section, he notes: When readers defended Frey on the ground that his book, however falsified [...]

Posted in Culture, Life, Writing | 4 Comments