I almost changed my mind on Friday, when a student asked me "who are you writing this for?" while I was researching an article on a student-run lecture series. I didn't know how to explain that I had left the Maroon, but was still writing articles at will. For who then, this blog? It seems like a compulsion, not a job, when I'm asking people questions with no strong idea where to publish them.
Oh yeah, to reiterate; I quit the Maroon last week.
I've wanted to be a journalist since high school, when a friend of mine and not- so-secret crush helped found a quarterly opinion journal. After that I interned with a local weekly newspaper, the La Jolla Village News. I liked feeling immersed in the News, the What Was Going On in my community, city, neighbors' front yards—The short version of the story is the same for every writer, I think: A few bylines, and I was hooked. The best part was going jogging on Thursday morning in my beach-side community and scanning the freshly rolled papers in the driveways for my name peaking out above a rubber band.
This is to say, I have much less sentimental value for the Maroon than I might otherwise. They didn't teach me how to self-edit, how to beg someone over the phone for Just a minute! or how to habitually write ledes on my way to classes. But the Maroon is the first place I wrote alongside and was edit entirely by my peers, and I disagreed with a lot of their editorial decisions. There are good journalists at the Maroon, this I'm sure of, but if there's a place on campus to do good journalism, this probably isn't it.
It would be in poor form to re-hash the problems I've had with my editors, especially when I have so much to be proud of: Like this feature story about dormcest on campus, and a story on the Kuvia Winter Festival that meant waking up at 4:30 in the morning last year. With so many deadlines I learned how quickly one could change the content and character of a piece by removing a quote or re-arranging a lede, and get lots of people very angry.
I have some new projects to get to work on; I won a grant to report on the 2016 Olympic Bid and its impact on the South Side, and I have another issue of the Midway Review coming out by the end of the month. You can also look for more of my writing on the Universitys' homepages, through my freelance work with the News Office.
But for now, as this blog post suggests, I'm all alone—unprotected by the Mastheads that I will continue to insist are essential to journalism even in this digital world.
Hopefully the Maroonatics will keep doing their homework, because I'll be reading—and writing, too.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Coursework inspires ice cream innovation
My latest feature for the University of Chicago News Office; it's about an awesome ice cream store in Wicker Park:
When alumnus Jason McKinney enrolled in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he assumed he would pursue banking or consulting after graduation. He never imagined he would become a pioneer in the ice cream business until he worked on a group project with Cora Shaw, a student who insisted they could turn air into ice cream—and turn a profit.
Today, the duo owns iCream Cafe, which combines science with sweets to create a bevy of made-to-order, instantly frozen desserts, from blackberry sorbet to chocolate pudding—and even goat’s milk ice cream upon special request—with the help of one not-so secret ingredient: liquid nitrogen.
The cold smoke billowing from iCream’s gleaming blenders is more evocative of magic tricks than cooking, but according to McKinney, the science is simple. iCream stores liquid nitrogen—a colorless, tasteless gas—in tanks suspended from the ceiling at about minus-321 degrees Fahrenheit. When it contacts the churning milk, the mixture freezes in seconds into a consistency somewhere between hard- and soft-serve ice cream.
Three years ago iCream was little more than an idea for a class project at Chicago Booth. But since re-opening March 9, McKinney, MBA’06, Shaw, MBA’07, and their unique frozen confections have again become a hit in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. iCream originally opened for a week in August 2008, but closed shortly after due to equipment malfunctions.
“Some of the skills we learned during that 10-week class [have been useful],” McKinney says, “like, how to evaluate ideas and risk—you have to really be ready to make sacrifices.”
More Than a Class Project
Their original assignment in Prof. James Schrager’s New Venture Strategy Class was to create a business plan for a new concept, and a Food Network segment about creating ice cream using liquid nitrogen inspired Shaw.
“I loved the idea, and I had a couple of parties where friends came over and everybody got to make their own ice cream. It was like a small-scale version of this [store],” she says. But when she first proposed the idea to her group, which included McKinney, they were skeptical.
At the culmination of their project, Shaw and McKinney mixed enough ice cream for their 60 classmates to eat.
“No one believed it would work at first,” says Shaw. “I said, ‘OK, if we can make the ice cream for the whole group, and it works, will you agree?’ And they really liked it.”
McKinney worked as a trial lawyer in the Loop, while Shaw held jobs in teaching and retail management before they matriculated to Chicago Booth.
Shaw always envisioned owning a business, which Schrager encouraged after seeing her group’s presentation.
“There’s never a bad time to start a new business. In the toughest economic times it’s often the job that you figured out yourself that will be the best job for you,” he says. “I think that the kind of unique treat that they’re attempting to put together has a market in any climate.”
Thousands of Possibilities
Unfortunately, a week after the business opened in early August, the liquid nitrogen dispenser, which was designed to pump freezing cold, smoking air into the mixing bowls, couldn’t adequately freeze the ice cream, Shaw says.
The ice cream store has only been reopened about a month, but so far, McKinney and Shaw say they have had no problems making lemons into sorbet.
“It’s really impossible to try every combination of ice cream, with all the different flavors, toppings, sugar, and fat content choices,” McKinney said. “There are literally thousands of flavors.”
Shaw recommends the Nutella and mint chocolate chip-flavored ice cream. McKinney’s favorite is white chocolate with Heath bar. But the possibilities are endless.
“You can get soy, organic, light, ‘fro-yo,’ non-fat, or low fat, and still have every single flavor available to you,” Shaw explains. “[On the day we opened,] a man came back again and again and bought four things because he was so excited to have ice cream that was sugar-free.”
Customers can choose what they want in their concoctions, including flavors, mix-ins, toppings, and color—even if it’s not on the menu.
My coffee-flavored sorbet
According to Shaw, one regular customer brings goat’s milk from home for the staff to mix into ice cream. “As long as you bring it in a sealed bag, we’ll make virtually anything you want.”
When alumnus Jason McKinney enrolled in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he assumed he would pursue banking or consulting after graduation. He never imagined he would become a pioneer in the ice cream business until he worked on a group project with Cora Shaw, a student who insisted they could turn air into ice cream—and turn a profit.
Today, the duo owns iCream Cafe, which combines science with sweets to create a bevy of made-to-order, instantly frozen desserts, from blackberry sorbet to chocolate pudding—and even goat’s milk ice cream upon special request—with the help of one not-so secret ingredient: liquid nitrogen.
The cold smoke billowing from iCream’s gleaming blenders is more evocative of magic tricks than cooking, but according to McKinney, the science is simple. iCream stores liquid nitrogen—a colorless, tasteless gas—in tanks suspended from the ceiling at about minus-321 degrees Fahrenheit. When it contacts the churning milk, the mixture freezes in seconds into a consistency somewhere between hard- and soft-serve ice cream.
Three years ago iCream was little more than an idea for a class project at Chicago Booth. But since re-opening March 9, McKinney, MBA’06, Shaw, MBA’07, and their unique frozen confections have again become a hit in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. iCream originally opened for a week in August 2008, but closed shortly after due to equipment malfunctions.
“Some of the skills we learned during that 10-week class [have been useful],” McKinney says, “like, how to evaluate ideas and risk—you have to really be ready to make sacrifices.”
More Than a Class Project
Their original assignment in Prof. James Schrager’s New Venture Strategy Class was to create a business plan for a new concept, and a Food Network segment about creating ice cream using liquid nitrogen inspired Shaw.
“I loved the idea, and I had a couple of parties where friends came over and everybody got to make their own ice cream. It was like a small-scale version of this [store],” she says. But when she first proposed the idea to her group, which included McKinney, they were skeptical.
At the culmination of their project, Shaw and McKinney mixed enough ice cream for their 60 classmates to eat.
“No one believed it would work at first,” says Shaw. “I said, ‘OK, if we can make the ice cream for the whole group, and it works, will you agree?’ And they really liked it.”
McKinney worked as a trial lawyer in the Loop, while Shaw held jobs in teaching and retail management before they matriculated to Chicago Booth.
Shaw always envisioned owning a business, which Schrager encouraged after seeing her group’s presentation.
“There’s never a bad time to start a new business. In the toughest economic times it’s often the job that you figured out yourself that will be the best job for you,” he says. “I think that the kind of unique treat that they’re attempting to put together has a market in any climate.”
Thousands of Possibilities
Unfortunately, a week after the business opened in early August, the liquid nitrogen dispenser, which was designed to pump freezing cold, smoking air into the mixing bowls, couldn’t adequately freeze the ice cream, Shaw says.
The ice cream store has only been reopened about a month, but so far, McKinney and Shaw say they have had no problems making lemons into sorbet.
“It’s really impossible to try every combination of ice cream, with all the different flavors, toppings, sugar, and fat content choices,” McKinney said. “There are literally thousands of flavors.”
Shaw recommends the Nutella and mint chocolate chip-flavored ice cream. McKinney’s favorite is white chocolate with Heath bar. But the possibilities are endless.
“You can get soy, organic, light, ‘fro-yo,’ non-fat, or low fat, and still have every single flavor available to you,” Shaw explains. “[On the day we opened,] a man came back again and again and bought four things because he was so excited to have ice cream that was sugar-free.”
Customers can choose what they want in their concoctions, including flavors, mix-ins, toppings, and color—even if it’s not on the menu.
My coffee-flavored sorbet
According to Shaw, one regular customer brings goat’s milk from home for the staff to mix into ice cream. “As long as you bring it in a sealed bag, we’ll make virtually anything you want.”
Friday, April 17, 2009
Busy Weekend Pumpkin Empanadas
This recipe takes about half an hour (okay, if you're efficient), and the empanadas will last you all week. As the title suggests, I made them for the first time on a very busy Sunday, and it was worth it. ¡Salud!
*1 bag of Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
*All-purpose flour to cover hands and table
*Filling:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup sugar
Generous amounts of cinnamon and powdered ginger to taste
1 cup canned, unsweetened pumpkin
1) Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees
2) Lightly grease a baking sheet
3) Roll a small (about the size of half a fist) ball of dough onto a table in the shape of a circle.
4) Mix filling ingredients together in a bowl; spoon two table spoons of filling into each dough round.
5) fold each round of dough in half, and pinch at the seams
6) Bake for 15-25 mins.
**Makes 6-12 empanadas of varying sizes.
*1 bag of Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
*All-purpose flour to cover hands and table
*Filling:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup sugar
Generous amounts of cinnamon and powdered ginger to taste
1 cup canned, unsweetened pumpkin
1) Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees
2) Lightly grease a baking sheet
3) Roll a small (about the size of half a fist) ball of dough onto a table in the shape of a circle.
4) Mix filling ingredients together in a bowl; spoon two table spoons of filling into each dough round.
5) fold each round of dough in half, and pinch at the seams
6) Bake for 15-25 mins.
**Makes 6-12 empanadas of varying sizes.
Dude, it's complicated!
In Dude, you've got problems, Judith Warner offers some fascinating, if depressing, insight into the ways teenage boys are using sexual IDs as pejoratives; It turns out, Warner says, "Your so gay" doesn't actually mean anyone thinks your gay.
This article brings up some of the same issues of behavior and identity among boys and men that my class on Masculinity in America, Past and Present looked at yesterday. Why do we so readily peg physical strength, authority, and overt displays of violence as inherently masculine traits? In sociologist Eugene Genovese's landmark book on slavery in America, Roll Jordan, Roll, he describes how this conflation of masculinity and physical force in the 19th Century produced a society in which (1) white [male] slaveholders felt the need to assert their control over male slaves by treating them like children who merited strict rules and worse punishments, and (2) male slaves felt compelled to abuse the women around them to compensate for the emasculation they experienced as slaves. In other words, social stature and brute force were the two most secure ways to demarcate your manliness, in that order.
Today, it this same line of thinking that leads us to associate "gay," "fag" and other terms with impotence and submission—to reiterate, not "manly" traits to have at all. I worry what that does for us as a culture, and for adolescents in particular who want to defend their masculinity, regardless of where their sexual preferences lie?
One commenter on the blog who goes by the name Nancy sums up my concerns well:
I’m only partly talking about homophobia, which, though virulent, cruel and occasionally fatal among teenagers, is not the whole story behind the fact that words like “fag” and “gay” are now among the most potent and feared weapons in the school bully’s arsenal.
Being called a “fag,” you see, actually has almost nothing to do with being gay.
It’s really about showing any perceived weakness or femininity – by being emotional, seeming incompetent, caring too much about clothing, liking to dance or even having an interest in literature. It’s similar to what being viewed as a “nerd” is, Bennington College psychology professor David Anderegg notes in his 2007 book, “Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them”: “‘queer’ in the sense of being ‘odd’ or ‘unusual,’” but also, for middle schoolers in particular, doing “anything that was too much like what a goody-goody would do.”
This article brings up some of the same issues of behavior and identity among boys and men that my class on Masculinity in America, Past and Present looked at yesterday. Why do we so readily peg physical strength, authority, and overt displays of violence as inherently masculine traits? In sociologist Eugene Genovese's landmark book on slavery in America, Roll Jordan, Roll, he describes how this conflation of masculinity and physical force in the 19th Century produced a society in which (1) white [male] slaveholders felt the need to assert their control over male slaves by treating them like children who merited strict rules and worse punishments, and (2) male slaves felt compelled to abuse the women around them to compensate for the emasculation they experienced as slaves. In other words, social stature and brute force were the two most secure ways to demarcate your manliness, in that order.
Today, it this same line of thinking that leads us to associate "gay," "fag" and other terms with impotence and submission—to reiterate, not "manly" traits to have at all. I worry what that does for us as a culture, and for adolescents in particular who want to defend their masculinity, regardless of where their sexual preferences lie?
One commenter on the blog who goes by the name Nancy sums up my concerns well:
"Domestic violence hotlines have experienced increased call volume as economic times have worsened. There’s a trickle-down effect. Parents feel less in control these days and want to have more control on the homefront and in general. Powerlessness leads to anger, anger leads to aggression. Kids absorb this and follow suit."
My name is Rachel, I'm 19, and...
Who am I again? I've spent the past couple of weeks wrestling with various forms of the verb to be, (Wittgenstein would not be happy with me!) and shame on me for failing to even find the time to write a blog post. I may not have written all of it down, but I've been on a series of pretty involved searches for a summer job, an apartment to sublet with the boyfriend (found!), and places on campus and in Chicago that are thinking of sexuality and activism in the same ways as me. UChicago's student feminism group, Feminist Majority, has already pleasantly surprised me with some events on porn and communication that are all about getting people talking outside of their preconceptions.
In lieu of writing ten blog entries, here are four things I did this week that I promise to update readers on in the future:
1) Applied for a University of Chicago Summer Action Grant to spend the warmer months researching and reporting on the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid and its impact on South Siders. Wish me luck—it's $1,500.
2) Interviewed for a summer job at Backstory Cafe. They needed to hire someone right away, so that didn't work out for me (you know, with the whole four classes and one part-time job thing going on) But this place is cool! By far my favorite coffee hang-out on the South Side, Backstory follows a sustainable, community ethos that translate into tasty soups and sandwiches made from scratch, and interesting program ideas like movies and board-game nights.
3) Baked a delicious set of pumpkin empanadas. Yum. Recipes to come.
4) Scheduled the first University Community Service Center Book Club and potluck for Friday, May 1st from 7 to 9 pm. We're reading Gang Leader for Day, and all are welcome.
------------
And with that out of the way, Here is a pair of articles from the week that do everything for me but answer the question I posed above (Come on, neither of us really thought it was that easy):
*This just in! David Carr says Journalism is Dying! Really, we mean it this time. The NYTimes Media Equation columnist evaluates the state of the newsroom, again.
*In, "Tempest in a Compost Pile," Hyde Park Progress blogger "chicago pop" de-mystifies the ridiculousness behind the University's decision to close the 61st St. Community Garden. He tells it better than I could.
And lastly, I hope everyone here in Chicago enjoys the 70 degree weather.
In lieu of writing ten blog entries, here are four things I did this week that I promise to update readers on in the future:
1) Applied for a University of Chicago Summer Action Grant to spend the warmer months researching and reporting on the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid and its impact on South Siders. Wish me luck—it's $1,500.
2) Interviewed for a summer job at Backstory Cafe. They needed to hire someone right away, so that didn't work out for me (you know, with the whole four classes and one part-time job thing going on) But this place is cool! By far my favorite coffee hang-out on the South Side, Backstory follows a sustainable, community ethos that translate into tasty soups and sandwiches made from scratch, and interesting program ideas like movies and board-game nights.
3) Baked a delicious set of pumpkin empanadas. Yum. Recipes to come.
4) Scheduled the first University Community Service Center Book Club and potluck for Friday, May 1st from 7 to 9 pm. We're reading Gang Leader for Day, and all are welcome.
------------
And with that out of the way, Here is a pair of articles from the week that do everything for me but answer the question I posed above (Come on, neither of us really thought it was that easy):
*This just in! David Carr says Journalism is Dying! Really, we mean it this time. The NYTimes Media Equation columnist evaluates the state of the newsroom, again.
*In, "Tempest in a Compost Pile," Hyde Park Progress blogger "chicago pop" de-mystifies the ridiculousness behind the University's decision to close the 61st St. Community Garden. He tells it better than I could.
And lastly, I hope everyone here in Chicago enjoys the 70 degree weather.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
South Side students say to IOC: "No Games!"
Please visit the Chicago Studies Blog that Works to ready my latest entry on the International Olympics Committee's visit to Chicago!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
A couple topics of interest...
A big thank you to Dan Savage of Seattle's The Stranger for writing about the horrible death of New York journalist George Weber in last week's column. It's something I was afraid to write about the day I saw it up on nydailynews.com on my parents' computer. The alleged details of the meeting (between Weber and a 16 year-old, self-described "Satan-lover"), which you can read about at the NY Post, the NY Daily News, Fox, etc. but I have no desire to link to because I think they're badly reported, cast a severely negative light on internet dating and alternative sexualities in general, and they shouldn't.
I don't know how to argue this right now, but I know they shouldn't. It only disturbs me to think that there can so much going right in the world at the same time so many things are going horribly wrong. But I'd like to think that working to banish fear and ignorance a la Dan Savage is one way to go about creating a society where sex like that doesn't happen (note, I did not say where internet hook-ups and kinky sex don't happen), and fortunately he's not the only person out there trying to accomplish this.
I don't know how to argue this right now, but I know they shouldn't. It only disturbs me to think that there can so much going right in the world at the same time so many things are going horribly wrong. But I'd like to think that working to banish fear and ignorance a la Dan Savage is one way to go about creating a society where sex like that doesn't happen (note, I did not say where internet hook-ups and kinky sex don't happen), and fortunately he's not the only person out there trying to accomplish this.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Newly-appointed Argonne director Isaacs to work towards alternative energy storage
Here is my latest Maroon article on the new director of Argonne Labs, Eric Isaacs. I had a lot of fun writing this piece, though it doesn't entirely show in the finished product, which reads more or less like a straight-up announcement of Isaacs's achievements and plans. Though not the most exciting pieces to actually sit down and write, I can't get enough of assignments like this one that put me in contact with fascinating, talk-your-ear-off experts in their fields.
In the span of twenty minutes Isaacs tried to explain the fine points of X-ray science, semiconductors and supercomputers to me (a student of the humanities who avoids academic physics like the plague). Did you know Argonne has a supercomputer than can calculate data close to a million times faster than the average laptop? I sure didn't. Take a look at what else stands out about Argonne, and how Isaacs plans to take the laboratory to the next level in these scientific fields:
By Rachel Cromidas
Published: April 3rd, 2009
Eric Isaacs will take the position of director of Argonne National Laboratory on May 1, President and Argonne Board of Directors Chairman Robert Zimmer announced last month. Isaacs, now a physicist at the University of Chicago and the deputy director of Argonne programs, plans to put Argonne, which oversees research on pressing energy and national security issues for the Department of Energy, at the cutting edge of research in X-ray science and energy development.
“I was honored and thrilled to be asked by the University to become the director,” Isaacs said. “Argonne is a leading U.S. Department of Energy lab focusing on fundamental science and applications of that to the big energy problems.”
Isaacs will be replacing current director Robert Rosner, who will return to teaching at the University as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics when his term concludes this spring, according to Argonne officials.
“[Isaacs] was out there as deputy of programs and leading the effort to create a strategic plan for the lab,” said Don Levy, chair of the selection committee. “We saw what he thought was important for the lab, and we liked his vision.”
Isaacs studied magnetic semiconductors at MIT and received his Ph.D. in 1988. Following his doctoral studies, he worked as a fellow at Bell Laboratories, studying X-ray science, a field widely researched at Argonne.
“I ended up at Chicago for a few reasons,” Isaacs said. “Of course, the physics department here is one of the best in the country, if not the world. It was really a great honor to come to Chicago and work with great people in the University.”
Isaacs also cited the University’s invitation to have him create and direct the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne.
“[Nanoscale science is] a very multidisciplinary science that includes chemistry, physics and biology to control materials only a little bigger than an atom,” Isaacs said. “We hired 60 people and built a $100 million facility.”
Since assuming his deputy position last May, Isaacs has worked to define Argonne’s strategic goals for research programs on alternative energy, X-ray science, and nanotechnology.
“What will the materials of the future be? We’re constantly looking at these horizons 15, 20 years out. Argonne’s is basic research, but it’s in the context of a mission and that mission is energy,” Isaacs said.
According to Isaacs, a main concern of Argonne’s is the development of alternative energy sources and storage methods.
“Illinois is just 60 percent nuclear,” Isaacs said. “Imagine [if] you added solar energy to that power source. You need much larger storage capacity to accommodate that need, and we are really not there yet. We at Argonne are thinking a lot about that, and the answer’s not obvious.”
In the span of twenty minutes Isaacs tried to explain the fine points of X-ray science, semiconductors and supercomputers to me (a student of the humanities who avoids academic physics like the plague). Did you know Argonne has a supercomputer than can calculate data close to a million times faster than the average laptop? I sure didn't. Take a look at what else stands out about Argonne, and how Isaacs plans to take the laboratory to the next level in these scientific fields:
By Rachel Cromidas
Published: April 3rd, 2009
Eric Isaacs will take the position of director of Argonne National Laboratory on May 1, President and Argonne Board of Directors Chairman Robert Zimmer announced last month. Isaacs, now a physicist at the University of Chicago and the deputy director of Argonne programs, plans to put Argonne, which oversees research on pressing energy and national security issues for the Department of Energy, at the cutting edge of research in X-ray science and energy development.
“I was honored and thrilled to be asked by the University to become the director,” Isaacs said. “Argonne is a leading U.S. Department of Energy lab focusing on fundamental science and applications of that to the big energy problems.”
Isaacs will be replacing current director Robert Rosner, who will return to teaching at the University as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics when his term concludes this spring, according to Argonne officials.
“[Isaacs] was out there as deputy of programs and leading the effort to create a strategic plan for the lab,” said Don Levy, chair of the selection committee. “We saw what he thought was important for the lab, and we liked his vision.”
Isaacs studied magnetic semiconductors at MIT and received his Ph.D. in 1988. Following his doctoral studies, he worked as a fellow at Bell Laboratories, studying X-ray science, a field widely researched at Argonne.
“I ended up at Chicago for a few reasons,” Isaacs said. “Of course, the physics department here is one of the best in the country, if not the world. It was really a great honor to come to Chicago and work with great people in the University.”
Isaacs also cited the University’s invitation to have him create and direct the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne.
“[Nanoscale science is] a very multidisciplinary science that includes chemistry, physics and biology to control materials only a little bigger than an atom,” Isaacs said. “We hired 60 people and built a $100 million facility.”
Since assuming his deputy position last May, Isaacs has worked to define Argonne’s strategic goals for research programs on alternative energy, X-ray science, and nanotechnology.
“What will the materials of the future be? We’re constantly looking at these horizons 15, 20 years out. Argonne’s is basic research, but it’s in the context of a mission and that mission is energy,” Isaacs said.
According to Isaacs, a main concern of Argonne’s is the development of alternative energy sources and storage methods.
“Illinois is just 60 percent nuclear,” Isaacs said. “Imagine [if] you added solar energy to that power source. You need much larger storage capacity to accommodate that need, and we are really not there yet. We at Argonne are thinking a lot about that, and the answer’s not obvious.”
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Class Time
I am enrolled in six classes this quarter. No, this is not an April Fools joke.
I can't make up my mind which classes to take for Spring Quarter, and the reason isn't just because they all look so good. After taking what I think are far too many disorganized, uninteresting and just plain difficult classes (and any rising third-year like myself will tell you, there are many out there), I want to pick my battles carefully. But this time I'm just stumped.
I attended three classes on Monday, and five on Tuesday. Below I will explain what I liked and didn't like about each class. But first, let me define what constitutes a "good class" from where I stand now: A good class will engage my mind, both in discussions/lectures and in the assigned readings. Papers and exams will challenge me, but reflect concrete material directly from the course. I should leave class each day feeling that thick, energizing, "I learned something today" feeling that I feed off of. And if it's no good, I want an easy A. (Though most students here will tell you that such grades for all intents and purposes don't exist.)
Is this the definition of a U of C-student pipe dream? Maybe. But here is a short list of my very best classes:
*Introduction to the Humanities with Larry McEnerney and Kathy Cochran, Autumn 2007-Spring, 2008
*20th Century Art with Christine Mehring, Winter 2009
*Intervention and Public Practice with Theaster Gates Spring, 2008
*Problems in the Study of Sexuality with Stuart Michaels and Anthony Todd, Autumn 2008
*Legal Reasoning with Dennis Hutchinson, Autumn 2008
*US-Mexico Borderlands with Gilberto Rosas, Winter 2009
*The Holocaust and the Visual Arts with Lawrence Michael Tymkiw, Winter 2009
It should be noted that only one of these is a core class. I probably should save elaboration for another post, but I have massive problems with the fantastical chimera known as the Core that is paraded around the University of Chicago by admissions reps and certain tenured professors like a carnival attraction. At its best, the core curriculum is something fun to look at; at worst, it's a rip off.
I am almost finished with the core curriculum, a heady mixture of Plato for Physicists and Science for Somnabulants (sorry social scientists). I didn't get into Global Warming this quarter, a 250-seat class in the Kent lecture hall into which more than fifty students tried to transfer on Monday. I also had little luck with Art of the East: China, too, a 50-seater survey course for my prospective Art History major. But the rest of my prospect look all too good:
Monday, 1:30 pm, I attend Writing Law. This course is a requirement for my other major, Law, Letters and Society, and it's taught by possibly my two favorite professors, Kathy and Larry. We will almost entirely be writing and workshopping briefs and memos, meaning the class has a distinctly "un-U of C" practical component to it (which I love). But the theoretical question that concerned and consumed my First-year Humanities class is still the same: How does language shape the way we think?
3:00 pm, I attend Legal History: Race, Sex and Sexuality. And am I ever intimidated. Co-taught by Amy Stanley from the History department and Mary Case from the Law School, this course interweaves primary sources and court cases to address the ways diversity has been addressed in society and the law. The class is roughly 1/3 law students, 1/3 LLSO majors like me, and 1/3 gender historians. We will be required to write one 20 page paper by 10th week. Oof.
Tuesday, noon, I attend the Politics of Mass Incarceration with Jessica Neptune. She informs me and at least ten other students at the start of class that the wait list is already fifteen students deep, basically nixing our chances of getting seats. I hop down the stairs of Cobb Hall to my scheduled noon class, America in World Civilizations with James Sparrow. I'm required to take this class for the Core, but I don't mind. After introductions, Sparrow spent the class leading us students through a close reading of Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" as an introduction to American attitudes toward 19th century imperialism. I hope the next classes will engage us with the material this thoroughly.
1:30 p.m. I sit in on Ralph Ubl's Theory of Collage, a three-hour seminar crammed to capacity with grad students and upperclassmen in the Art History major, for just long enough to snag a syllabus filled with Rosalind Krauss and Clemente Greenberg readings. Then I sneak across the hall to Art of the East: China, taught by Wu Hung, only to learn that I am competing against at least 15 other people for five open seats.
3:00 p.m. I am actually enrolled in this class—thank goodness. It's Masculinity in America, Past and Present with Anthony Todd, another favorite professor of mine from last Autumn.
This blog post reads like a mini-course catalogue, and I still have to choose between two Wednesday classes: Performance Installation or the Mexican and Argentinian Press.
I can't make up my mind which classes to take for Spring Quarter, and the reason isn't just because they all look so good. After taking what I think are far too many disorganized, uninteresting and just plain difficult classes (and any rising third-year like myself will tell you, there are many out there), I want to pick my battles carefully. But this time I'm just stumped.
I attended three classes on Monday, and five on Tuesday. Below I will explain what I liked and didn't like about each class. But first, let me define what constitutes a "good class" from where I stand now: A good class will engage my mind, both in discussions/lectures and in the assigned readings. Papers and exams will challenge me, but reflect concrete material directly from the course. I should leave class each day feeling that thick, energizing, "I learned something today" feeling that I feed off of. And if it's no good, I want an easy A. (Though most students here will tell you that such grades for all intents and purposes don't exist.)
Is this the definition of a U of C-student pipe dream? Maybe. But here is a short list of my very best classes:
*Introduction to the Humanities with Larry McEnerney and Kathy Cochran, Autumn 2007-Spring, 2008
*20th Century Art with Christine Mehring, Winter 2009
*Intervention and Public Practice with Theaster Gates Spring, 2008
*Problems in the Study of Sexuality with Stuart Michaels and Anthony Todd, Autumn 2008
*Legal Reasoning with Dennis Hutchinson, Autumn 2008
*US-Mexico Borderlands with Gilberto Rosas, Winter 2009
*The Holocaust and the Visual Arts with Lawrence Michael Tymkiw, Winter 2009
It should be noted that only one of these is a core class. I probably should save elaboration for another post, but I have massive problems with the fantastical chimera known as the Core that is paraded around the University of Chicago by admissions reps and certain tenured professors like a carnival attraction. At its best, the core curriculum is something fun to look at; at worst, it's a rip off.
I am almost finished with the core curriculum, a heady mixture of Plato for Physicists and Science for Somnabulants (sorry social scientists). I didn't get into Global Warming this quarter, a 250-seat class in the Kent lecture hall into which more than fifty students tried to transfer on Monday. I also had little luck with Art of the East: China, too, a 50-seater survey course for my prospective Art History major. But the rest of my prospect look all too good:
Monday, 1:30 pm, I attend Writing Law. This course is a requirement for my other major, Law, Letters and Society, and it's taught by possibly my two favorite professors, Kathy and Larry. We will almost entirely be writing and workshopping briefs and memos, meaning the class has a distinctly "un-U of C" practical component to it (which I love). But the theoretical question that concerned and consumed my First-year Humanities class is still the same: How does language shape the way we think?
3:00 pm, I attend Legal History: Race, Sex and Sexuality. And am I ever intimidated. Co-taught by Amy Stanley from the History department and Mary Case from the Law School, this course interweaves primary sources and court cases to address the ways diversity has been addressed in society and the law. The class is roughly 1/3 law students, 1/3 LLSO majors like me, and 1/3 gender historians. We will be required to write one 20 page paper by 10th week. Oof.
Tuesday, noon, I attend the Politics of Mass Incarceration with Jessica Neptune. She informs me and at least ten other students at the start of class that the wait list is already fifteen students deep, basically nixing our chances of getting seats. I hop down the stairs of Cobb Hall to my scheduled noon class, America in World Civilizations with James Sparrow. I'm required to take this class for the Core, but I don't mind. After introductions, Sparrow spent the class leading us students through a close reading of Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" as an introduction to American attitudes toward 19th century imperialism. I hope the next classes will engage us with the material this thoroughly.
1:30 p.m. I sit in on Ralph Ubl's Theory of Collage, a three-hour seminar crammed to capacity with grad students and upperclassmen in the Art History major, for just long enough to snag a syllabus filled with Rosalind Krauss and Clemente Greenberg readings. Then I sneak across the hall to Art of the East: China, taught by Wu Hung, only to learn that I am competing against at least 15 other people for five open seats.
3:00 p.m. I am actually enrolled in this class—thank goodness. It's Masculinity in America, Past and Present with Anthony Todd, another favorite professor of mine from last Autumn.
This blog post reads like a mini-course catalogue, and I still have to choose between two Wednesday classes: Performance Installation or the Mexican and Argentinian Press.
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