This New York Times article echos some of the findings on gender and teaching evaluations that I summarized here.
Professor of Political Science & Sen. Wm. McMaster Chair in Gender & Methodology, McMaster University
This New York Times article echos some of the findings on gender and teaching evaluations that I summarized here.
So, before I forget…. I wanted to commit to paper (eh, teh Internets) these random thoughts that I had before, during, and after research design class today…
My brother-in-law, who recently relocated from Texas to Western NY for his Ph.D., sent me this rumination on the use of “Y’all”, which I promptly forwarded to my Chair and a staff member, both of whom have either chuckled or LOL’d when I’ve said “y’all.” In response, the staff member admitted that Canadian’s have their own affectation, “eh?”, which led to a brief discussion of the meanings and use of “eh.” Yes, there are some people (not plentiful in Toronto or Hamilton, thank goodness), who seem to sprinkle “eh” at the end of every statement. But more often, it seems, to Brian and me at least, that “eh” is used in a sarcastic way to really invert the meaning of the previous statement, as in “Have a good day, eh?”, which you’re likely to hear a snarky barista tell a picky customer as they hand off their half-caff, triple tall, light foam, extra sweet, mocha soy latte.
I’m curious about other uses of “eh.”
Let me start by saying this is not a promise that I will be blogging again regularly. However, I’ve been thinking about this since last week’s graduate research design class, so I thought I’d go ahead and write these ideas down somewhere other than my Moleskine™.
For the first week of class, we read a handful of histories of the political science profession, most of which focused on the development of American political science (much to at least one student’s dismay).
One of the articles suggested that the Canadian market is too small to be a leader in all fields of political science, and instead, if international recognition and contributions were valued, then Canadian political science would be well-served by specializing in the areas of the field in which it has a comparative advantage. This got me and (then because I made them) my students reflecting on what subfields or areas within political science might Canada be reasonably expected to have a comparative advantage. Having been trained and taught in the U.S. system before arriving here, I have some thoughts based on observations of the differences, not only of political science as its practiced in Canada, but also differences in undergraduate education and society in general. So here are a couple of examples.
Examples of fields or areas in which Canada conceivably has or could develop a comparative advantage:
Example of fields in which Canada is likely to be at a comparative disadvantage
I’m sure there are more points that could be added to either list, but these are the ones that immediately came to mind as I (re)read these histories of the discipline last week.
Back in 2007 (or was it 2008?), I joined a group working to develop an online portal or community for folks teaching research methods. At the two APSA TLC meetings I attended, the folks in the teaching research methods track always wanted a place to post information and questions about teaching methods. Then, in 2007, Phil Schrodt, Jan Box-Steffensmeier, and Dean Lacy gave a workshop at the TLC about their efforts to develop a wiki-based, open-source textbook. It seemed logical to combine the textbook idea with the type of online community the APSA TLC attendees wanted. Bill Anderson and I were invited to join Phil and Jan’s efforts to get funding, and we picked up Bill Jacoby along the way, too. A few meetings and many, many emails later, we have funding and the beginning of a site, with the help of folks at ICPSR. I have been busy corresponding with the site developer at ICPSR to build the site and with the other members of project to put together our first workshops to get the project moving. Here’s the Call for Participants.
Brian and I have watched a handful of Mythbusters lately that have used some basic statistics to either set up the test of the myth or to test the myth. I’m wondering if anyone’s ever used some of the clips in an undergraduate methods class. It seems there are lots of episodes that could but used to illustrate different types of experimental designs. But, there are also some that use statistics based on the data they collect. For instance, in this episode (see Vector Vengeance), they calculate the standard deviation across multiple cannons to determine which is the most consistent way to launch a ball. In this other episode, they are testing whether men or women, redheads or non-redheads, and cursing or not cursing explain differences in people’s ability to handle pain. They calculate means across the different groups, but stop short of a difference of means test. It seems you could (re)create the individual data to match up with their means and then do small sample difference of means tests in class.
For now, I’m making a list of episodes and saving them in my teaching undergrad stats folder in the event that I am called upon to teach that course. I also have a running list of episodes from The Big Bang Theory, including the opening scene of “The Friendship Algorithm,” when Kripke comes by and makes fun of Leonard’s experiment with 20K observations and not a single statistically significant result. Bazinga!
Once upon a time, I had a blog. The last post was a subdued celebration of the election of Barack Obama. A lot has happened in the world since then. A lot has changed in my life, too. Consider this both my last post on Profesora Abstraida and my first post here. I can’t promise regular updates, and I won’t promise the same level of scrutiny of Mexican politics as before, but I will try to do more than short Tweets. In the meantime, here’s an abbreviated update of what I’ve been doing for the last 540 days.
In November 2008, I interviewed for a faculty position in the Political Science Department at McMaster University. Everyone was very welcoming and nice, and I enjoyed my visit. Neither Brian nor I had never really been to Canada before, so he flew up after the interview for a weekend in Toronto. Though it was abnormally cold (according to my hosts), we enjoyed the Annex, the AGO, and Queen Street West.
January 2009 was a busy month. I heard that my tenure file had passed through the Institute-level committee, so things were looking pretty solid for promotion and tenure at Tech. I was also invited to interview at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. I was also offered the position at McMaster. Though I enjoyed my campus visit at Texas State, I had to respond to McMaster before their interviews were going to be concluded. McMaster, though far from ‘home’ in Austin, seemed like a better fit for me, and Toronto seemed like a better fit for Brian. So, we decided to make the move. I accepted the position (though we didn’t tell anyone for several weeks).
In February, I received the official letter confirming that I had been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Tech.
In March, we used spring break to move several things to a storage unit in Austin and to tell Brian’s family in person that we were moving to Toronto during the summer.
In April, we packed up the house and said goodbye, though things were so rushed that we didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone personally. That made me a little sad. I also started a new website to chronicle all the great things Brian says.
In May and part of June, we stayed with my mom in Austin and visited Toronto to sign a lease.
In late June, we packed up the Jetta with our 3 cats and 80lb dog for the drive to Toronto. Most of July was spent Craigslisting and unpacking. August, more of the same. Brian’s parents came to visit for 5 days in mid-August. Brian helped my grandparents move from Corpus Christi, TX to Flint, MI.
Classes started at McMaster in September. For the first time, I was teaching a graduate class in my area of research interest. So far, so good.
Over the holidays, I visited in Flint, while Brian went to Austin.
Spring semester, I taught intro graduate statistics and an undergraduate senior seminar in the politics of public policy.
In late January, my grandma passed away in her home in Flint. She left me a voicemail singing me happy birthday the night before.
In February, my book was published, and we went to Austin during reading week to visit and help my grandpa get everything settled.
In April, I received notice that my SSHRC Standard Research Grant was funded for the next three years.
…which brings me to now. I am happy in my new Department and University. We are happy in our new city.
And, I am looking forward to my second summer since graduate school in which I have not either:
a) moved our household internationally;
b) ran or participated in a summer study abroad program for at least 6 weeks; or
c) taught two courses during summer school.
I have lots of old projects to wrap up and new ones to begin. In the meantime, I’ll try to post here periodically.
Once upon a time, I had a blog. The last post was a subdued celebration of the election of Barack Obama. A lot has happened in the world since then. A lot has changed in my life, too. Consider this both my last post on Profesora Abstraida and my first post here. I can’t promise regular updates, and I won’t promise the same level of scrutiny of Mexican politics as before, but I will try to do more than short Tweets. In the meantime, here’s an abbreviated update of what I’ve been doing for the last 540 days.
In November 2008, I interviewed for a faculty position in the Political Science Department at McMaster University. Everyone was very welcoming and nice, and I enjoyed my visit. Neither Brian nor I had never really been to Canada before, so he flew up after the interview for a weekend in Toronto. Though it was abnormally cold (according to my hosts), we enjoyed the Annex, the AGO, and Queen Street West.
January 2009 was a busy month. I heard that my tenure file had passed through the Institute-level committee, so things were looking pretty solid for promotion and tenure at Tech. I was also invited to interview at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. I was also offered the position at McMaster. Though I enjoyed my campus visit at Texas State, I had to respond to McMaster before their interviews were going to be concluded. McMaster, though far from ‘home’ in Austin, seemed like a better fit for me, and Toronto seemed like a better fit for Brian. So, we decided to make the move. I accepted the position (though we didn’t tell anyone for several weeks).
In February, I received the official letter confirming that I had been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Tech.
In March, we used spring break to move several things to a storage unit in Austin and to tell Brian’s family in person that we were moving to Toronto during the summer.
In April, we packed up the house and said goodbye, though things were so rushed that we didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone personally. That made me a little sad. I also started a new website to chronicle all the great things Brian says.
In May and part of June, we stayed with my mom in Austin and visited Toronto to sign a lease.
In late June, we packed up the Jetta with our 3 cats and 80lb dog for the drive to Toronto. Most of July was spent Craigslisting and unpacking. August, more of the same. Brian’s parents came to visit for 5 days in mid-August. Brian helped my grandparents move from Corpus Christi, TX to Flint, MI.
Classes started at McMaster in September. For the first time, I was teaching a graduate class in my area of research interest. So far, so good.
Over the holidays, I visited in Flint, while Brian went to Austin.
Spring semester, I taught intro graduate statistics and an undergraduate senior seminar in the politics of public policy.
In late January, my grandma passed away in her home in Flint. She left me a voicemail singing me happy birthday the night before.
In February, my book was published, and we went to Austin during reading week to visit and help my grandpa get everything settled.
In April, I received notice that my SSHRC Standard Research Grant was funded for the next three years.
…which brings me to now. I am happy in my new Department and University. We are happy in our new city.
And, I am looking forward to my second summer since graduate school in which I have not either:
a) moved our household internationally;
b) ran or participated in a summer study abroad program for at least 6 weeks; or
c) taught two courses during summer school.
I have lots of old projects to wrap up and new ones to begin. In the meantime, I’ll try to post here periodically.
I thought these lists were interesting, if not exactly surprising. Perhaps most Wikipedia contributors are democrats, and that’s why Obama’s list is so much longer?
At the same time, just like I don’t care who Joe the Plumber endorses, I also don’t really care who Christie Brinkley is likely to vote for.
Also, the Obama campaign site has debate 3 ‘traducido al español’.
…would this headline make any sense:
GOP Nominee Recasts Campaign in Bid to Court Working-Class Voters
Otherwise, shouldn’t working-class voters want ‘socialism’ (at least of the democratic variety)?
Wow. Brian told me this morning about reading Ann Richards’s DNC speech from 1988. It could have been given at this year’s convention.
I had the opportunity to hear Ann Richards speak twice while in high school. She could have you giggling one minute and crying the next. I’ll never forget her pointing out that its the same company that makes Sara Lee desserts and uncomfortable girdles and other undergarments to keep women ‘slender.’
In any case, if you are too young or too senile to remember her address, I highly recommend revisiting it. She was a great Texan.
Given the Georgia (state) budget crisis, higher ed institutions are cutting costs everywhere. At UGA, they are limiting professor travel, even if paid for out of pocket (not that I’m sure how professors can afford to do this with potential raise freezes and rising health & parking premiums, which result in a net pay cut), due to the perceptions that professors should be on campus, focused on teaching. Note, no one is really talking about how course offerings (fewer electives, no summer school, few sections and larger classes) are likely to affect students. I have at least one student who is now worried about being able to graduate on time if particular courses aren’t offered. But, I digress… I really just wanted to share this:
…to which should be added, how legislators and the public (to the extent they pay attention) think professors should spend their time: 95% teaching, 5% service, unless of course its sponsored research which accounts for about 36-37% of GT revenue.
Brian just bought me a new toy productivity tool!
img from Gizmodo.com
My alma mater was closed in June and will be reopening as a ‘new’ school in the fall.