Before I left school last fall, I graded one set of students’ papers in my role as a graduate instructor at UC Berkeley. It was a basic paper assigned in an introductory sociology course, so I assumed that a competent, complete answer deserved an “A.” When I submitted my grades and sample papers for the… Continue reading Grade Inflation: Maybe Unfair, Probably Just
Perhaps because the novelty—by which I mean an alcohol-accentuated tincture of horror and awe—has worn off, I’m not coming away from my fifth reunion with the same crazed list of stories as I had after, say, my Freshman year. There were no drunken alumni saving me from arrest at the hands of Mohawk-profiling P-safe officers;… Continue reading Going back was the best of times, going back was the worst of times
With all the time I spend reading Marx with other graduate students and talking revolution with other activists, I occasionally forget that my world is largely populated by people who don’t share my particular line of leftist politics. I’ve been reminded of the political diversity of my friends during conversations about the open letter which… Continue reading “I Don’t Actually Hate Bankers” and Other Thoughts on the Open Letter (Part 1)
It so happens that the very night Occupy Princeton mic checked J.P. Morgan, I myself was talking about Princeton—or, more specifically, avoiding talking about Princeton. A cohort-mate introduced me to one of her friends, and she asked me where I went to school before Berkeley. As per usual, I mumbled something about Central New Jersey.and… Continue reading Even Princeton
After the tigers of Occupy Princeton mic-checked recruiting events for Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, a few concerned alumni collaboratively drafted an Open Letter to Princeton Community to send to the Princeton Alumni Weekly and the university administration. If you are an alum and want to sign it, shoot me an e-mail (also, let me… Continue reading An Open Letter to the Princeton Community
This week saw a new addition to the Sachs Scholarship family. We are a small tribe—the scholarship has existed for 40 years, and only one person has been chosen in all years except one—and it is really exciting to have a new member among us. (Seriously, check out Veronica—what a brain wave!) The announcement… Continue reading New Family
Every time I go back to Princeton, the entire thing feels like a non-stop personal examination. While I should just enjoy my precious few days on campus, I find myself spending the balance of time agonizing over how it is, exactly, I am supposed to relate to my alma mater. I am I supposed to… Continue reading Going Back; Moving On
For all intents and purposes, I finished my term on Thursday—the day before my final exam—when I gave up on studying, unable to convince myself anymore that learning to do ANOVA statistical tests by hand or to ramble about epistemological approaches to ethnography had anything to do with, well, anything. Paul Willis, a Professor at… Continue reading Adventures Under the Midnight(ish) Sun
Back for one weekend only, by popular demand: Feeling a tad aged on my birthday, and consumed with fear of becoming a bit too predictable (or maybe it was just how temptingly long I had let my hair grow out?), I decided to re-shave a mohawk last weekend. It was a lovely 48 hours of… Continue reading Blast from the Past
It’s gorgeous out. Not the “the-sky-is-only-85%-covered-in-clouds-today-and-it-hasn’t-rained-in-an-hour” weather that usually passes for gorgeous in England, but legitimately, fantastically, gorgeous . Which is why I am extremely bitter to have spent all weekend inside a library*, and am writing this incredibly boring post about… libraries! I never got the sense that Princeton had much of a library… Continue reading Boxed In
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 