Non-Tenure Track Instructors

There is an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed today about contingent, that is, non-tenure-track faculty: Nearly Half of Undergraduate Courses Are Taught by Non-Tenure-Track Instructors.

I was particularly struck by the quote from Marc Bousquet, author of How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (2008): "Most people who are paying tuition are shocked to discover the actual numbers of people who are teaching on a contingent basis, and they're shocked to discover the actual salary that they're being paid."

Really? Do undergraduates care if the prof. is tenure-tracked?

The article is essentially a write-up of the American Federation of Teachers' report "Reversing Course: The Troubled State of Academic Staffing and a Path Forward."

Huygens & Leeuwenhoek

Check out this audio file with the Dutch pronunciations for Huygens and Leeuwenhoek. Now you've got a semester to practice before Michel gets back.

I had the opportunity to attend a fantastic conference in New York in September entitled, Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy. Any conference that features both Martha Nussbaum and Peter Singer has to be truly amazing. The podcast of the conference is now available at

http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/cdconference/podcasts.shtml

Or try this one and click on podcast on the left side of the screen.

http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/cdconference/schedule.shtml

A monograph is coming out in 2009.

Congratulations...

To Nathan and Stephanie, two of this blog's most prolific posters, who were married last weekend. We wish them the very best, and hope they are currently making the most of their hiatus in the northeast.

DSB - now available electronically

The Dictionary of Scientific Biography is now available as an eBook through the library.

Join the group on LinkedIn

I've created a group for graduates, and future graduates, of the HST, HMed, and HSTM Programs at the University of Minnesota: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/820557.

Let me know if you can think of something in the public domain that we can use for an image.

Making the "Big List"

Hello all. It's been a quiet summer for this blog but that's alright, many of us have been frantically traveling, researching, studying for prelims, and working for various professors, institutions, and the like. However, the summer "break" is almost over; I know this because the Great Minnesota Get Together has started and I'm beginning to see the tell-tale signs of wide-eyed teenagers with bookstore bags walking around campus. It's sad to say, but soon our quiet summertime campus won't be so quiet anymore. The lines will be longer at the convenience stores and God only knows when the bathrooms will be accessible again on the first floor of the Social Sciences building. This blog was only recently started in the spring semester and by the time it got rolling at all the summer had started. Hopefully, beginning with this fall, this blog will become a more active place filled with things other than pictures of fine graduate students cataloging their virtually non-existent free time.

On to some news.
You may all be interested to know that John Lynch from Arizona State developed a "big list" of HSTM blogs recently and I'm happy to say that we've made the list! If you interested in staying abreast with the hip and happenin', you might want to add these blogs to your daily reading list. Note that Suzanne Fischer's blog also made the list (and her blog is the reason I know about us making the list). Speaking of Suzanne Fischer, we all should give her a hearty congratulations on her new job as "Associate Curator of Technology" at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich. Congrats Suzanne!