Hi, everyone! I was hoping to crowdsource a thoughtful and thorough answer from some of the most knowledgeable folks I know. The daughter of a good friend of mine -- the daughter is a high school senior who can easily handle college-level reading -- wants to do a major research paper, I quote, "on the women of Avalon in Gawain and the Green Knight and Lanval." She's interested in "how empowered those women are relative to other women (and also the men) in the story." Which secondary sources (online and easily accessible to a high schooler without access to a university library) do you think she should check out? Scholarly articles are most welcome. Thanks so much for any suggestions/links!

#Arthurian #ArthurianLit #Arthuriana #KingArthur #SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight #GawainAndTheGreenKnight #Lanval #BritishLit #Literature #Academics

I just completed a blind peer review for an academic journal.

It was a very nice paper, but not focused to the purposes of the journal, so my verdict was "reject and resubmit elsewhere."

#Academics #ScholarlyWriting #PeerReview

The exploitative character of academic publishing in a single cartoon.

#publishing #universities #research #academics

h/t Alexandra Kupferberg/LinkedIn

original illustration: Thailand by Tawan Chuntra.

https://www.irancartoon.com/site/artists/tawan-chuntra#&gid=1&pid=30 #TawanChuntra #Thailand

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Cartoon (meme - retitled) showing academic publishers at the ned of a plank over the void, supported by the weight of academics on the land-end, while one turns away (saying 'fuck this'), the publisher says: 'You will write papers for us & pay us to publish them. You will review those papers fo free. You will also pay us to read those papers'.

Some very interesting links for all who want to improve #plant #awareness as #teachers, #academics, or #sciComm activists: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2572-2611.fostering-plant-awareness

#botany #academicChatter #biology #plants #education #biodiversity #knowledge #ecology #phytology

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Page of my herbarium from walking with my dog: I collected only plants that my dog discovered. Here are three parts of grass (false oatgrass) which he liked to eat. I noted the species, how he discovered them, and why he could have eaten them (amount of phosphorus, calcium and saponines).

@stman @internet_nl @EUCommission the problem is how the #Internet was #enshittified from

-#research & #development by #academics to

• #LateStageCapitalism-powered #disinformation and #hategrooming machine!

The #commercialization is the mistake!
The #US-centrism is the problem!

Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of #Fascism

[Unattributed, but based on the writings of #UmbertoEco]

"#Historian #LawrenceBritt studied the fascist regimes of #Hitler (Germany), #Mussolini (Italy), #Franco (Spain), #Suharto (Indonesia), and #Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.

3. Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: #racial, #ethnic or #religious #minorities; #liberals; #communists; #socialists, #terrorists…

4. Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.

6. Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.

7. Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. #Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. #FraudulentElections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2017/08/23/lawrence-britt-14-characteristics-of-fascism/

#History #Histodon #RabidRight #Antifa #Antifascism #FarRight #Trump #Putin #Russia #MAGA #Project2025 #CharacteristicsOfFascism

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The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism 1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism 2. Disdain for Human Rights 3. Identification of Enemies As A Unifying Cause 4. Supremacy of the Military 5. Rampant Sexism 6. Controlled Mass Media 7. Obsession With National Security 8. Religion and Government Intertwined 9. Corporate Power Protected 10. Labor Power Suppressed 11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts 12. Obsession With Crime and Punishment 13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption 14. Fraudulent Elections

Dear US universities insisting that big college #sports are "revenue neutral" or "pay for themselves" on your campus: this is easy to prove. Kind of a no-brainer, actually: fully separate sports from academics, financially and legally.

Remove all possibility of hidden movement of funds, services, and goods between them. If the sports org needs money, it can ask and any funds transferred can be declared openly. Same if the uni wants money from the sports club. The club can pay rent for use of college facilities like tracks, stadiums, ice rinks, offices, locker rooms, and workout gyms, or they can build their own. They can hire their own staff, buy their own uniforms, lease their own buses, pay for athlete travel, and fund their athletes' scholarships, all of which they claim they are already doing.

If there is a budget surplus after all that, I'm sure the uni will be happy to accept donations to fund #academics, as #CollegeSports programs have been claiming they do for decades.

IIRC a few Universities have done this, enjoyed a sudden boost in the budget, and never looked back.

Separating academics from sports would have additional benefits like reducing pressure to give failing athletes a pass, disentangling student athlete career and class choices from paternalistic meddling by athletic staff, limiting the influence of sports on hiring choices for the school (especially of presidents etc ), and legally protecting the university (to some extent) from the fallout of NCAA recruiting violations, lawsuits from athlete assaults. It would essentially eliminate the university's legal exposure to allegations of collusion or conflict of interest with presidents and VPs.

Background: at least two big #economics studies have shown that very few or no college sports programs in the US pay for themselves. All or almost all take money from academics. These studies also reported that it is very difficult to track all the money that is shifted from academics to sports.

#HigherEd #money

The university has an obligation to interrogate the proposition that a world in which AI is widely used is desirable or inevitable. We don’t need to cheer for a vision of tomorrow in which scientists feel comfortable with not personally reading the articles their peers have written and students are not expected to gain insight through wrestling with complex concepts: a world in which creative and knowledge work is delegated to a mindless algorithm.

#LLM #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #GPT #Gemini #Claude #academics #universities #education