Immortals, Long Cons, and the Building Fury of the Art History Department

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

thedosianexplorer:

I’ve mentioned my favorite art history professor to @systlin a few times, but there’s one story of him that stays with me. So for you, Plant Aunt, I’ve crafted a tale of one immortal spitefully making sure another immortal finally gets his:

The running joke among David’s students is that our beloved professor is clearly an immortal. How else could we explain his small office crammed with illuminated manuscripts, Scythian and Mongolian bows, 3rd cent. Roman gladii, near-Eastern rugs and ancient swords? The way he sighed wistfully in class and told us how beautiful the Parthenon was when it was new and, “not just a damn tourist attraction”? It wasn’t uncommon for us to see him hefting a sword over his shoulder, leather trench coat flapping in the wind, flipping off the head of security who really should have stopped trying by now.

It was also a running joke that our favorite immortal just did not get technology. I worked at our Help Desk for all four years of college, and David would always request one of his students to come and fix his computer. 

“This computer isn’t fast enough,” he told me once, polishing an enameled chalice. Google maps was still loading on the page, trying to parse the coordinates he entered. It was likely looking ten centuries too late. “It needs more of that RAM. Really. I could be soaring over ancient Rome like a bird!”

After repeat requests, he got a brand-new Macbook Pro, which he promptly abandoned for his antique slide projector. 

“I just don’t get the new technology,” he shrugged. “You can’t get the feel of things.” 

That was the only sentiment he shared with his nemesis. 

Keep reading

*Screaming in pure, unadulterated GLEE*

MOMMA BEAR TEACHER

mickmercury:

inficetegodwottery:

mickmercury:

well this oughta be a wild class

holy shit

#i want to be jealous as hell but im almost afraid to ask what class that is#17776

materiality/sociology of text

like, books/texts as objects, and how we interact with them, and how they are transmitted, and their place in/effect on society, and how those things change in different times and places, and how texts themselves change and evolve

its p rad

emeritusprofessorofnothing:

benyw:

iloveradfems:

shopcatsca:

iloveradfems:

cecaeliawitch:

unapolpgeticalfeminist:

omg I’m doing research for one of projects for college, and apparently, girls learn better when they’re in an all girls class, but boys learn even worse when they’re in an all boys class, because all the negative things become even stronger of there are no girls to act as “buffer”

get rid of the boys and let girl learn in peace, i couldn’t care less about them

It’s not our job to be a “buffer”

Separate boys from girls then, they don’t have to be acting like mothers at age 12, if boys ruin the education of others boys, um, idk, fix their behavior maybe?

I work at uni. My program is very competitive. Like you need a 92% or more to get in. We get 10x the applications than we can accept. So. This means our program is 95% female. Simply because girls do better in highschool than boys. Its literally that simple. However. This is a HUGE deal in the administration! Because OMG all those poor boys with less than a 92% can’t get into our program and woe is me, those poor poor boys. Every year we meet to talk about ways to “rectify” this “problem”. One year they’re going to stop inviting me to these meetings. Because I always ask questions like “how do we get boys into the program with lower GPAs without denying girls with higher GPAs? And how is giving boys preferential treatment not sexist?” Keep going good ladies, I’m saving your seat!

This type of thing always happens when women are dominating something, protocols are changed to accommodate and benefit men, and if this strategy isn’t successful the field is devalued.

Keep the good work!

The amount of times I heard my grandfather talk about the ‘feminization’ of schools because he wanted to blame the system for boys under performing (or, more accurately: girls out performing the boys) instead of, ya know, boys’ entitled attitudes and overall piss poor behavior when at school.

When women fail at something: there must be something wrong with women
When women succeed at something: there must be something wrong with the system

ineptshieldmaid:

reachmouse:

ofmonstersandmintcookies:

thingsthatverbme:

jovaline:

Haha okay, the teacher I have for YA Lit is amazing. I had her for Sci-Fi Fiction before. But the thing is she was given this class five days before it started since she’s taking over for another teacher.

So her syllabus starts out normal, right? Like…

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But then…

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And then…

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By the time it hits mid March…

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So.

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So.

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Done.

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Really excited about this class, man.

@thedisreputabledog

@lordwhatfools thiS IS LITERALLY YOU

This teacher has the right idea about teaching a book by Matt de la Pena. *cough*

I aspire to be this teacher

weavemama:

weavemama:

we’ve all been bearing bad news in america for the past few days, I think we deserve to hear some good news. Malala just got accepted to oxford university!!!! being a huge advocate for girlMs education, this acceptance to one of the best universities in the WORLD is well deserved. congrats to her 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

actually I should be congratulating oxford bc this IS the best student they have ever accepted

houseofhaleth:

joyful-serenity:

afro-politan:

the president of nigeria is about to fuck boko haram up and cut his own salary in half and criminalized female genital mutilation

the president of guinea built/is building infrastructure and school and wells all over the country and is decreasing youth unemployment exponentially

the president of cote d’ivoire made school mandatory of children ages 6-16 and banned plastic bags while also building ultra modern trasportation infrastructure

the future is for real in africa 

I think this should have a hell of a lot more notes on it than it does. This is what good news looks like folk, and the continent of Africa surely deserves a shed load of it.

Today (April 7th) is Remembrance Day for the Rwandan genocide. While Rwanda still faces challenges, their recovery has been incredible. They now have the highest percentage of women in parliament around the world (one of only two countries to have over 50% women), their gross national income has risen each year, and life expectancy has risen from  48 in 1990 to 65 in 2013.