Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
I thought myself into a slightly uncomfortable corner the other day. I was reading about the religious observances of Carthusian monks in the 15th century, and I was both a little inspired by their lifestyle and a little critical. They built their lives almost exclusively around prayer, reading, contemplation, meditation and reflection. For hours in …
I want to begin this post by recounting a conversation that, as I’ve looked back on the weeks and months since the COVID-19 pandemic brought schools, universities, and economies to a halt, I’m sure I had hundreds of times. Whether talking to family members, friends, roommates, peers, professors, or acquaintances, riffs on the following phrases …
When I was first learning French in high school, I was enthralled by Paris. Not only did I love the language, but the cuisine, the culture, the history, and of course the art seemed as though they were all part of this mystical world I wanted to get to know—and that Paris embodied. But it …
I’ve just finished reading Ulysses in one of my classes. As a group, we struggled and wrestled and plodded through the dense text in a month, coming to class only to realize that a mere three hours a week was barely enough to scratch the surface of the segment we had read. Ulysses—and Joyce’s writing …
As a specialist in the literature of Britain’s Romantic period, I had little occasion during graduate school or the first twelve years of my professorial career to venture outside the Anglophone world in my teaching and research. This suddenly changed, though, in 2012, when I began a five-year stint running BYU’s European Studies program. Besides …
Here’s a question: could the mediated essay be an underutilized opportunity to expand the scope of academia? >> Intro music and graphics Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! Huge shout out to Squarespace for sponsoring this episode, and of course, thank you to all the patrons who support the channel. Without all of you, …
If you ask Professor Marie Orton for her philosophy on life, she will answer, “In my family, we say for most any experience: it’s either a good time or a good story.” She exudes a contagious fervor for her work, for mentoring, and for life in all of its complexities. And she captures this fervor …
Over Christmas break, I made the pilgrimage with my mom and sisters to see the latest Little Women adaptation. I found the film absolutely brilliant; director Greta Gerwig reimagines and restructures the story in a way that translates beautifully for a twenty-first century audience. I (a Jo, through and through) began crying right around the …
Happy New Year! Am I too late? What is the last day that this is allowed? I generally shoot for mid-January and after that, I just say hi, so I take back my Happy New Year and just say hi so as to keep with my own set of rules. There are many traditions around …
Though I’ve never been overly enthusiastic about New Year’s celebrations, the prospect of beginning both a new year and a fresh decade felt weightier and more significant for me this time around. During the anticipatory build-up towards the night of December 31st, I felt, as many do, the impulse to impose improved exercise regimes, implement …