The semester wouldn't be complete....

...without a student emailing you: "Professor, I know this is sounds like an excuse, but my dog really ate my thumb drive, and that's why my assignment is a day late. I hope you'll accept it". Teaching wouldn't be the same without the comic relief moments. By the way, this is a commuter student that once got locked out of his house and came to the last five minutes of class just to get the homework, so I accepted the assigment.

What's the most outrageous excuse you've received this semester?

Somebody made me happy, I made somebody happy

Last Wednesday was the last day with my Civilization class. It was a special group, and I was fortunate to have those students in my class. I did an informal survey of what they liked and did not like. They gave good suggestions. Then one student, very responsible but whose Spanish was bad and his reading comprehension even worse, told me: "It was a very difficult course for me. But after this semester, I have a newly found respect for a region I knew very little about. Thank you so much". It made my day.

Today, a student from my 101 class came into my office hours. He is very hard-working, though not particularly good. He is getting a B- in the class. He blew one of the quizzes, because somehow he did wrong all the exercises about the Direct Object Pronoun. I was surprised, since he had come to my office hours before the quiz, we had gone over it and he had understood it. I explained him briefly what was wrong, and then told him "Get a sheet of paper, and re-do the exercise. That way, we can check if you understood it". He did, and did it perfectly. I gave him the full points for the exercise, and raised the grade from a D+ to a B. I made somebody happy.

Something to end the semester on a good note

Fluff that I find on Facebook. Take a look at it and smile... Many of us need it today.

Have I ever told you I used to be a punk rocker?

End of the semester blasphemous and secular rants

- "Romero, Ellacuria and the so-called Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador are the Natalee Holloway of the social justice people at your school" - My husband dixit, after one particular rant of mine.

- Dear student: if you call yourself a Marxist throughout the semester, don't turn in a final paper claiming that the Jesuit missions in Paraguay were the closest thing to Utopia Latin America ever saw. Specially when your main source was my FREAKING high school history teacher (I kid you not. And yes, she was an academic). She was one of the most right wing professors I ever has! In the clash between class struggle and religion, religion always wins. Grrrr... (Copy and paste from a rant I left at Fie's)

- American work ethic is not admirable, it's unhealthy. I attended a reception this week where they were honoring employees (not faculty, just staff) retiring. There was a little speech for each of them. One thing that repeated in all speeches (and they were not done by the same person): how Mr. X, Ms. Y or Mrs. Z never missed a day of work, had to be told to go back home at least once because ze was sick and still came to work, and almost never took a vacation day. These were said as praises. I think it is plain crazy.

Have you ever fallen in love with a student?

...figuratively, of course, but by the end of the semester the romance is over? It happened to me this semester. At the beginning of the semester, I was fascinated by this brilliant freshman who had a hunger for learning. Ze asked, Ze argued, ze elevated the level of the classroom discussion. Well, ze remains as brilliant as before, but now I see hir as cocky, stubborn, and with a fixed worldview that no amount of discussion will ever make hir question. When you point out to holes in hir arguments, ze just repeats them. Now, ze is convinced that no country has ever done more damaged to the world, ever, than the United States. When I told hir that a few countries could give the United States a run for its money in that category, ze just scoffed. When I pointed out (just to play Devil's advocate) that hir beloved France had developed most of the torture methods taught by the School of America and applied in Latin America, ze brushed it off. I told hir to look at what had happened in Algeria during the country struggle for independence, and hir reply was that it was only for a decade, in comparison with the prolonged US intervention in Latin America. I certainly don't feel like defending the US, but that kind of close-mindedness drives me nuts. In addition, ze hasn't been to class in over a week (and I've seen hir on campus, so ze wasn't sick), and hir final paper, while better than many in hir class, is just plain lazy. A B+ from somebody who could get an A, and even a brilliant A if ze worked hard enough. Oh well, lesson learned. And with some luck, ze'll grow up in the next few years.

What class are you struggling with and why?

Found it on Facebook, it belongs to The Writing Center at Saint Mary's University. Made me laugh until I woke up this morning...Good way to start the day.

(Click on the photo to enlarge).

I take student evaluations very seriously

I have always taken student evaluations very seriously. I pride myself in being able to discern constructive criticism from immature and mean comments. Last Wednesday, I told my Latin American Civ class that I would do the student evaluations today. Because there was a showcase of undergraduate research going on on campus, only 11 out of 21 students showed up. They were all students that I know liked the class and would have given me very good evaluations. However, I postponed them for next Wednesday. I want to know the opinion of the majority of the class. This is the third time I teach the course, but the first I am really satisfied by how it turned out. And I really want to know if most of the students share that perception. I also postponed the evaluations because two out of the three brightest students in the class were absent. And I really want to know their opinions and suggestions. I may be risking lower evaluations numbers by doing what I did today. But I take my teaching really seriously, so having my students honest opinions is what's more important for me.

Publishing companions

This week, the tables of contents of two journals where I have articles accepted and forthcoming were updated, and I was relieved to see that my article appeared in both of them, as promised. I know of two cases where the article did not show up, because of the editor just forgetting to include it. It almost happened to me a few years ago, but an email inquiry to the editor saved me. As you can imagine, though I don't have a hard copy of the journal yet, seeing my articles included was a huge relief. The two cases I refer to above happened to people with tenure. In my case, since I am going up next year, it would have been a bigger problem.

I also observed one thing. In both cases, among the authors of other essays included in the TOC, there are scholars I have published with before (meaning that in the past, my articles have appeared in journals at the same time that essays from those scholars). I know personally two of them, and I've read the work of a third one. One of them has a pretty similar field of interest as I have. The other two, not that much. But I found it curious (though not surprising) to see names repeating from time to time. They are, in a way, my publishing companions.

Has this happened to you in the past? I imagine that if you are a full professor, it is not that unusual. As an assistant professor, I hadn't noticed it before.

Midwest politeness, OCD, or just plain creepy?

I live in an apartment complex. There are 4 washers and 4 dryers in the basement. Usually, that's enough, although if you wait until the weekend to do your laundry, you might have to go up and down the stairs a few times to find an empty machine. Yesterday, I did my laundry, in the late afternoon. Washing the clothes went fine. I hung some of them, and put others in the dryer. And I completely forgot. I went out for a few drinks, came back, and went to sleep. This morning, I remembered that I had left a load in the dryer. What usually happens, if somebody wants to use it, is that the next person takes your load out of the dryer and leaves it in top of it. Fair enough, since it's my fault that I hadn't pick it up. So I went to get my laundry, and as I expected, somebody had taken it out of the dryer. The weird thing, though, was that it was perfectly folded!!! I am not kidding. Somebody had taken my stuff out of the dryer, folded it (shirts and towels) and left it on top of the machine. I am baffled. I don't know whether it is just Midwest politeness, an OCD neighbor, or a creepy neighbor. My husband is as puzzled as I am. What is your take, dear reader?

Somebody should tell the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics that it's not 1977 anymore

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics approached The Who's manager to ask them if Keith Moon, their legendary drummer, was available to play at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. The inquiry would certainly be valid if it wasn't for a small detail: Keith Moon died of an overdose in 1978!!! And any music fan worth its name knows it. Allegedly, the band manager answered:

If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him...

In the same vein, according to the above linked article, the 2012 London Olympics organizers asked The Sex Pistols if they wanted to play. They refused. While this one is a legitimate inquiry, it would definitively be a poor choice. I love punk rock. I saw The Sex Pistols in Buenos Aires in 1997. While I don't regret going, it was a really mediocre show. Johnny Rotten said very clearly they were doing it for the money, and it showed. I can't imagine what they would be like playing in 2012. Awful, just awful...

Did you know that in Arizona, a woman can be pregnant 2 weeks before fertilization?

In another step towards the insane, and to reaffirm Arizona as the number 1 state I refuse to set foot on*, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer just signed into law HB 2036, that bans abortion after 20 weeks. But this is not your run of the mill Republic anti-abortion law. No, no. It takes insanity to another level. This law

[starts] the clock on pregnancies at the woman’s last last menstrual period, which could be two weeks before fertilization.

So literally, for legal purposes, a non-pregnant woman could be considered pregnant. In legal limbo, we would have a lot of Virgin Marys then, I guess. WTF is wrong with this country?

*A year ago, my parents asked B. and I if we wanted to spend a week at the Gran Canyon, all expenses paid. I refused. So we ended up going to Mexico City, instead. That was money well spent!

This is how I look today

This is how I look today. And how I feel too... TGIF!!! And I love Mafalda, always to the rescue. Best Argentinean creation ever...

Overheard at...(my institution)

Continuing with slightly fluffy posts, because I am not in the mood to get into more serious things, I'll share something that made me laugh last night. Many institutions have a Facebook and/or Twitter page where students submit chunks of conversations they've heard at different building on campus. Their name is something like "Overheard at [insert name of institution]". Since they are taken completely out of context, they can be hilarious. I discovered them last night, and I laughed out loud with many of them. Here are a few examples, slightly redacted to protect the innocents...

- "Does anybody else enjoy going through the Encyclopedia looking for typos? I did it last weekend, and I had a great time!"

- "Donuts holes are really my thing"

- "Do I have to feel bad for wearing leather shoes?" Answer: "I don't know, do you have to kill the cow to get the leather?"

- "Yeah... Joe has kind of developed an habit of drunk driving in the past few months"

- "I've just realized I'm not made for blue-collar life"

- "Should I read the CliffNotes of the book before reading the actual book? I may understand it better that way"


Does your university has anything similar? Contributions for our general hilarity?

RBOC - Southern Living, Committees, Meetings

- Through Living Social, I received an offer to subscribe to the magazine Garden & Gun. Intrigued by the title, I looked it up. Seriously, what can a magazine with that title be about? How to kill pests in your backyard? Getting rid of rodents? No, it's a magazine with everything you need for Southern Living!!! As the website for the magazine states,

Garden & Gun is an idea about how to live — how to live a life that is more engaged with the land, the literature, the music, the arts, the traditions, the food, and the authenticity that has shaped the Southern way of life. It is about truly appreciating the richness of the South and knowing how that understanding can enrich one’s life and translate beyond Southern geography.

Only in the United States can a magazine about Southern Living be called Garden & Gun! And I still don't know why I received the offer, since I don't live in the South anymore!

- I just discovered a new type of committee: those where you join in order to kill whatever is being discussed. In this case, it was spending money in a particular building renovation. Students and faculty thought it was a waste of money, but administration wanted to proceed with it. Well, I am happy to report that the project was killed. The trick was simple: force the architect to come up with a detail budget. Yes, I didn't think spending 6M on this was a good idea either.

- Rule of thumb: don't schedule Departmental meetings two days in a row, specially if there are controversial subjects to be discussed. The first day was as polite as possible. The second, it's unbloggable. But it wasn't nice.

-April is killing me. I miss blogging every day.

Question to readers re going to a Conference

Next Fall I have to present my papers to go up for tenure. While everything is under control as far as I can tell, of course I am anxious about it. A few days ago, somebody sent me an invitation to present a paper at a Conference in one of my very specific fields. The Conference is next Fall. At this point, unless I get something out of my dissertation that got left behind because it is not the direction my research went, I would have to start from zero to present something. Moreover, the Conference is not in a particularly attractive place (it is not exactly one of those places where you go more to visit the location than to attend a conference). On the other hand, going to the Conference might be a good opportunity to get in touch with people with similar research interest. However, because I am up for tenure next semester, I feel that if I accept I will be adding to myself some extra stress that I don't need. Do you think I am overreacting? Or should I decline the offer to focus only on my tenure file (going to the Conference would make no difference in my tenure case)? What do you think?

Positive things of teaching at a religious institution

if you are not that religious... I'm not teaching until next Wednesday!!!! And I found out today! Yeahhh... Sometimes, you have to find comfort wherever you can. If you are wondering what I am talking about, check Reuters. Or the New York Times. And yes, since I am not teaching until next Wednesday, I am pretty buzzed. And I freaking deserve it!!!

The Princeton Review "Best 300 Professors" List

We all know the criticism to college and university rankings by outlets such as U.S News and The Princeton Review. Institutions, though, play the game for the most part, and one is forced to go along. Occasionally, it has its benefits, like convincing an administrator not to expand class sizes because it would mean a drop in the rankings. The Princeton Review has managed to come up with the most useless ranking I've ever seen: "Best 300 Professors". The methodology makes no sense. According to the CHE, it's a mix of student surveys and Rate My Professor rankings. I never heard of such surveys being conducted at my school. Unlike other colleagues, I do think Rate My Professor can be very useful, and that if one knows how to read it (specially taking into account they were written by undergraduates for the most part), it can provide useful information. Of course, given the potential to rig it, I also think that it is purely anecdotal (I've heard of a few schools that use it informally in tenure decisions. Not mine, fortunately). Regardless, the list that the Princeton Review came up with is worthless, because it is impossible to even understand what was the methodology behind it.

All of the above didn't stop me from going through the list, of course. I love gossip, after all. My current institution is not listed. My alma mater is. I don't know any professor on the list. My husband knows one, and is not very impressed. What about you? Do you know anybody who made it into the list? Any opinion on such person?

Undergraduates and History - a follow up

Most of you remember the experiment that, out of curiosity, I carried last week. You may also remember that the results were not very encouraging. Yesterday, I return the test. I asked both class who had looked into the question after the test. Only one student had, no surprisingly the best student by far among both classes. Ze said ze felt pretty embarrassed when ze found out the answer. The rest just looked at me like wondering why would I even think they would bother looking out the answer. I can deal with lack of knowledge. After all, you are always learning, and I don't assume that everybody knows everything. Certainly not me. But lack of curiosity kills me. It is depressing.

I know I am extrapolating out of a small and non-scientific anecdote. However, that lack of curiosity, I've seen it over and over in different situations (though obviously not with all my students. I've had great students, and this semester is actually really rewarding in that sense). Not being American, I'd like to ask my American readers, is that a new phenomenon, or has it always been like that and I am just idealizing a previous generation (or idealizing my own upbringing in Buenos Aires)?

Back to Grad School town

So this past few days, I was out of town and went back to a Conference to my alma mater. It is mostly a regional conference, but my advisor wanted to put together a panel with his former students, and I accepted. While I don't have bad memories (overall), of my grad experience, I feel no urge to return to that town. Too small and hot for my taste. It was definitely worth going back, though not necessarily for the academic aspect of it.

First of all, I realized one thing I missed about that place: diversity. If you want through my current institution, it is very easy to classify students into certain molds (white, African-American, a few Asians, etc). Walking through my alma mater campus, it is a completely different story. Students just don't look cookie-cut. I also witnessed two skaters engaging in a skeptical but respectful conversation with a bunch of Jehova Witnesses preaching on campus. In a sense, it was an exchange of ideas. I don't think I will ever see that here. I ate lunch at the Hare Krishna table on one of the outside spaces on campus.

Second, I was really touch by how my advisor introduced us. I've always have a good relationship with him, but he was always somehow distant. This time, he introduced us (three women) saying: "The title of this panel should be 'El regreso de las hijas prodigas' (the return of the prodigal daughters), or, better yet, 'El regreso de las hijas prodigiosas' (The return of the prodigious daughters). I am really moved that they accepted my invitation, and seeing how they have grown and flourished". A tear fell down my eye. I also had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, and even smooth differences with one of them.

On the other hand, it was somehow sad. I got the feeling that I graduated at the right time. Because of retirements and two tragic deaths, there are very few literature professors left. For example, nobody is teaching Contemporary Peninsular Literature (the closest thing is a professor that specializes in Unamuno and the '98 generation). The professor retired, and ze has not been replaced. It has become a department of linguistics, mostly, and the few literature students left have few professors to go to. In a sense, without trying to sound arrogant, it was as if I and the other returning alumni were "The Golden Generation", something that in one way or another was mentioned by a few professors. I feel proud of having attended that program, but I wouldn't recommend students to go there for their Grad Studies unless they want to specialize in Hispanic Linguistics.

So that's why I haven't been blogging. I wish I could write about today, my first day back at my institution. It started bad, and then it just got weird (though in a good way). I just cannot write about it, though.