Off-The-Record Advice for Graduate Students

A few things they won’t tell you during orientation.

An industry exists for providing advice to would-be professors.  Unfortunately, that industry is generally worthless, filled with self-serving platitudes urging conformity to a system that will gradually kill your soul.  The following advice is intended for young scholars who aspire to maintain a sense of humanity in environments of bald careerism and brutal competition.  There’s no foolproof method, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying.  I hope the following observations help: 

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How Bernie Sanders Became a Fighter for Palestine

On the importance of mythology to presidential campaigns

With the Democratic primary in full swing, the outlines of public debate are pretty much entrenched.  Common wisdom on the left says that all of the candidates are bad on Palestine except for Bernie Sanders.  Despite some problems, pundits declare, Sanders is still the best.  Is the statement true, though, or is it a convenient truism? 

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